GlASS BACK
by DarianTerrell
Summary: A boy waits out a storm while his father works on a big project at his lab. Once the storm ends, he is instructed to go meet his father at the lab, but once he gets there, his father isn't there. No one is. He searches for his father throughout the lab and finds more than he ever expected.
1. Chapter 1

"Three… two...one. Okay. My name is Henric McCathey, son of David McCathey, Head scientist of the aquatic division of Lavaunzier Labs. This auditory recording hereby grants me access to...level c? B? Damn it." Henric stops the tape recorder and throws it down. He walks over to his drawer, opens it, and shuffles through until he finds an old map of the laboratory with section D circled. "Crap, I was off." He looked at his watch, checking the date. August 12th. It's been eleven days since Hurricane Taylor hit the coast. It's been eleven days since he last talked to his dad. "Wait out the storm, make an audio recording of yourself detailing who you are, and then come to the lab. Don't say anything when you meet the guards, just play the recording. I'll be in section D. Tell them and they'll take you right to me. David circled section D and folded it up, passing it to Henric. "Be good kid."

Weeks later, the storm had finally passed. The city had been completely evacuated besides Henric himself, and the scientists at Lavaunzier Labs. According to his dad, their work was too important to abandon. Henric grabbed an empty backpack and picked up the tape recorder again. "My name, dad's name, age, section. It's simple." Henric took a deep breath before recording again. His dad had left him alone before, but this was different. No messages, no calls, no type of contact in over a week. His dad told him to expect it, but that doesn't make the isolation any easier.

Walking to his bedroom door, he put in the four digit code to unlock his room. The rest of the house was cold compared to his room. Grabbing the key fob hanging by the door, Henric left the kitchen and stepped outside. Looking at the neighbor's houses, you couldn't even tell a hurricane had hit the town. Henric opened the garage and pushed a button on the fob and his dad's truck instantly powered on. He hopped in the passenger side even though it was driverless. He was used to this side, and he didn't feel like he was ready for the driver seat anyways. After putting the address into the touchscreen monitor, he turned on the radio to hear what the news reports were about the storm. "Recovery efforts are underway in North and South Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Taylor. The Hurricane dumped about three trillion tons of gallons of rainwater on North Carolina. It's nowhere near a record breaker but it has done serious damage nonetheless. We'll have more today, at ten."

Everything he drove past showed no signs of a hurricane. There were no fallen trees, no destroyed houses, or floods. It only looked like a little rain had passed. He didn't know what the radio speaker was referring to. Henric tried other radio stations, searching for music, but only got static. From both FM and AM. Maybe the storm did do something. To the radio towers at least. Turning it off, Henric sat in silence as the truck took him to the was bright outside, bright but cold. The truck's monitor told him it was 48 degrees fahrenheit. No clouds in the sky No cars in the road. Just Henric in a big truck, in an empty town.

"Your destination is on the left."

A big glass sign with black letters spelled out Lavaunzier Labs. Past that was a massive dark grey and black building almost completely rectangular, with a huge garden in the front. In the middle of the fountain was a big fountain the same color as the building with several statues spitting out water. The truck stopped itself and Henric got out, slowly approaching the building. _Dad said security took their job seriously. There could be a sniper watching me right now._

Henric made it all the way to the front entrance, but nobody came. Nobody greeted him and he couldn't see inside, the windows were tinted. Henric buzzed the intercom and put his tape recorder up to the speaker. After a moment of waiting, he knocked on the glass.

"Hello?!" He called out, trying to peer into the glass."Is anyone here?" He tapped the button repeatedly before finally giving up. Pulling out a map of the headquarters, he found another entrance on the side. The door was also locked, but it had an ID scanner on the wall next to it. His dad had an old ID in the truck, Henric was sure of it. He ran back to the truck and checked the dashboard. Nothing. The glove compartment didn't have anything, neither did the sun visor. Finally, reaching between the seat. He found an ID from last year, a couple pennies, and a coupon for a free shake. Henric ran back to the side entrance and held the card up. There was a soft _ding, _and the door unlocked.

_Your ID is currently out of date. Please seek a replacement at the registrar._

Suddenly, metal blinds shut down over the windows. An alarm blared and a red light started flashing on the wall near the security camera. A monotone voice came over the loudspeaker;

_DAVID MCCATHEY, LAVAUNZIER LABS IS STILL UNDER LOCKDOWN AND THE MAIN DRAG IS STILL CLOSED. PLEASE RETURN TO YOUR SECTION AND RESUME YOUR DAILY ACTIVITIES UNTIL OTHERWISE NOTED._

_Lockdown? _Henric thought. It's really not as bad as everyone thinks out there. Henric headed towards the escalator while taking a look around. This place felt ghostly when it was was another problem. It shouldn't have been empty. There was always guards at the entrances, even when his dad brought him here on Christmas Day. Always hustle and bustle, the scientists never rested. Even in the wee hours of the night, They were working diligently without end. His father was no exception. The entire lab looked like a mall with offices and testing areas instead of could barely go to the bathroom without clearance, everything was confidential. Dad used to joke about making Henric sign a nondisclosure agreement at four months old. The older Henric got, the more he actually believed it.

The entire building was separated into two floors, both twice the size of a football field. The first floor had sections A and B, facing West and East respectively. The second floor had sections C and D, facing North and West. There technically was a third floor, but on the map it just says testing area. Henric had never been there. Getting off the escalator, walked forward until he got to his father's office. Peering inside, the light were off and his desk was a mess. His dad never leaves it like that. He turned the knob but it was locked. "Dad?" he called, knocking on the door. "I'm here!" Waiting a few moments, Henric gave up and headed towards the cafeteria. Maybe everyone was hiding in there, together.


	2. Chapter 2

Henric was wrong. The cafeteria was completely empty. He was starting to worry now. Did they evacuate too? He can't be the only person in town. That's impossible. He ran to the kitchen door and shouted. "HEY! IS ANYBODY STILL HERE?!"

No response.

No no no. This isn't real. His dad wouldn't leave him. He gave him specific instructions. They had a plan. They would be perfectly safe. Henric forced open the metal panel where they served food and slid into the kitchen. Nobody was there. Nobody was watching him. Nobody said anything. There was no food being prepped, no one was cleaning, nothing was happening at all. The machines weren't even on. Henric searched through the cabinets and found a metal meat tenderizer. Leaving out the kitchen door, Henric ran back to his father's office and bashed the doorknob with the mallet, breaking the handle. He kicked the door in and rummaged through his dad's dresser. All he found was files for project plans and case studies. He was about to close it when he spotted a folded up map. Henric unfurled it and saw that it was three times the size as the map he had earlier, and it had labeled the third floor as section F. It wasn't like the other floors, it was shown as one huge room instead of a bunch of rooms connected by halls. Henric tried to check the computer to see if his dad had clearance down there but it was locked and the office phone had been disconnected.

They were going to be down there. Henric had no doubts. Where else would they go? He wasn't sure if it was big enough to fit the whole lab staff but they had to have gone somewhere. Hanging on the wall by the door was his dad's I.D. tag and a key. He grabbed him on his way out and reached the elevator in the middle of sections C and D. The was still no sign of anyone. Henric wondered if someone could be watching him on the cameras. _If they were, they would've stopped be from breaking my dad's door down. _He reassured himself. He shook the thought and pressed the down button.

Just like he expected, the elevator didn't move. There was a key slot next to the firefighter button in the elevator, so he took out his dad's key and tried to use it in the hole. The key wouldn't fit, so he tried repeatedly pushing the down button. To his surprise, a metal slot slid up, revealing a scanner. He quickly used his dad's newer I.D. on it and pressed the down button again.

This time, the elevator began to descend.

The elevator had no music, so Henric stood in silence as it went down.

Ten minutes passed. Then twenty. Henric was starting to worry. Where was the elevator taking him, Hell? Luckily, the elevator began to slow down before he started to freak out. It dinged and opened up into a big room with an aquarium and a dozen fish tanks. The room was filled with blue lights in each corner. Henric noticed a digital sign on the wall that read 'McCathey'.

Henric walked around the room to another door. Inside was a much bigger office with a name plate that said 'McCathey'.

Henric kicked the door in anger and turned around to look at the fish. He had to use his dad's I.D. to get to the third floor. On the smaller maps, the third floor is just listed as a testing area. Is there a wider area where the third floor converges? Or is it just a columns of testing spaces stacked on top of each other? Is it even possible to get to someone else's area without their I.D.?

Henric tried to think logically. He was young but he wasn't irrational. Henric didn't grow up around kids he grew up around animals. He didn't play with toys he tested new inventions. He was too smart and too collected to lose his head. He walked over to his dad's computer. The wallpaper was a bunch of fish in an aquarium, and they had a little tiki head to swim into. His dad only had four icons on the desktop, probably because he didn't want to obstruct the view of his wallpaper. The icons were for Files, Recycle, Cameras, and Door.

Henric clicked on cameras and nine boxes appeared on screen. Of the nine, six were black. The others were pointing at him, in the office, the aquarium outside and a corner of the wall near the biggest fish tank. He tried to click on the others but nothing showed up. Minimizing the screen, he clicked out of it and clicked on door. Instead of a whole application, a little text box appeared on the screen. It said 'Would you like to open the door? Yes or No'.

There was no reason for him to say no, so he clicked yes. Instantly, the computer chimed and a loud clank could be heard from the other room. Henric clicked back on the cameras and saw that a huge opening had appeared in the corner of the room. Henric put the key and I.D. around his neck and grabbed the mallet. The door was camouflaged to look like the wall, it didn't even have a handle. Henric had to push with all of his might go force it ask the way open, it must've weighed tons. Once he finally opened the door he looked around in awe. To the left of him was

A long, gigantic tube filled with water, fish, and aquatic life. The tunnel like tube must've been hundreds of feet long, and it scaled the wall, connecting to other tubes across the factory like building. How did they build this down here?! A better question would be why his father never told him about it. There must've been thousands of fish down here. The other side of the room had regular fish tanks, though some were larger than average. All of the tubes had lights on the inside, but it was slightly difficult to see through because of the algae on the glass. Henric walked around and observed the tunnels, trying to see the many types of fish swimming around. There has to be something bigger here. These tubes were big for a reason. His dad probably had stingrays, sharks, maybe even whales.

After walking the entire length of the factory, he reached a wall with a cylindrical structure in the corner. The tube wasn't closed off, it connected to a larger tank on the right. Henric didn't see any fish swimming in it, just sand, a big boulder in the center covered in kelp, and a bunch of smaller rocks. Then he noticed a small light blue starfish on the glass. Henric had always been fascinated with starfish. They didn't bleed, they could regrow limbs and they had eyes on the ends of their arms! His dad told him they could move too, though he had never seen it happen. Henric put his right hand on the glass, right where the star fish was. "It's not a fish." He remembered his dad telling him. "We call them sea stars."

Henric tapped on the glass, trying to get the sea star to move. It didn't budge. He hit the glass harder this time, rapping on it with his knuckles. Behind the boulder, something moved, causing a ton of sand to swirl up.

Slowly, a long slender shape rose from behind the boulder. No, It WAS the boulder! An arm reached over and swept away the seaweed. The creature rose and stared and Henric wild-eyed and mysterious. She swam up to the glass and shocked Henric, causing him to jump back a step.

"You're a mermaid." he whispered.


	3. Chapter 3

Humongous? No. Gargantuan? No, that feel right either. Colossal? Now that, that sounded better. She was probably as big as a whale, maybe even bigger. Henric had discovered a colossal mermaid! Or rather, his dad did. His moment of shock and amazement was slightly dulled by the thought. He still hadn't found anyone. As far as he could see, there was no one in the entire lab at all. How could everyone leave without a trace? No signs of chaos, no signs of panic. Then again, if they were hiding secrets like this maybe there's a reason there was no struggle.

The mermaid appeared to be just as curious of him as he was of her. She wiped algae off the glass to get a better look of him. She didn't wear seashells like Ariel. She didn't seem bashful or even aware of her nudity. This must have been what Eve felt like before she discovered sin. He couldn't tell what the color of her skin was, the tank was too dirty. Looking at it this way he'd assume her skin was green. The mermaid smiled at Henric, showing all of her teeth. They were sharp and serrated like shark teeth. He couldn't tell because of the algae and glass, but they appeared to be grey. Henric raised his hand and shockingly, the mermaid waved at him.

"I want to call you Eve. Is that okay?" He asked aloud, simply stunned by her majesty.

She nodded, smiling, and swam from the tank to the cylinder.

Henric followed her and she watched him as she swam around.

"Whoa, you can understand me?"

Eve nodded again and made a signal with her hands. Henric recognized it as sign language, but he didn't know much of it himself. Taking off his dad's I.D., Henric held it against the glass. Swimming down to get a closer look, Eve wiped algae off the glass and squinted. Then she smiled and tapped the glass.

"Did he teach you sign language?"

She nodded again and swam back to the tank, digging through the long, silky, oil black hair, wriggled with life as she moved through the water. After a moment, she pulled out a large silver disk. She pointed it towards the glass and it reflected Henric's face, while pointing at the I.D..

'Are you saying we look alike?" Henric asked, watching hier expression. Nodding, she wiped the glass and turned her hand around, showing Henric the algae. He didn't understand what she was trying to show him.

"What? Algae? The glass?"

Eve frowned and frantically started wiping the glass, removing a lot of the algae. The she swam up and thrust her hand out of the tank, showering The factory floor with water. Henric couldn't even tell the tank had an opening because of how tall it was.

"The tank? You want me to clean the tank?"

Eve smiled and tapped her nose. Henric couldn't believe it. He was playing charades with a humongous mermaid.

"How? How am I supposed to clean it?"

She motioned for him to follow her and swam towards the end of the tank. Her did as she was told and saw a huge filtration system on the side of the tank, and a super long ladder attached to the side of the tank. There was a big screen on the wall saying the power was down. Where was the circuit breaker?

Henric followed the fat black cords from the tank along the wall going halfway across the factory. The cords led directly into a wall with a metal plate above it. Henric could tell there was some type of door right next to it, but there was no knob or handle. He took out his father's I.D and started sliding it against the wall, hoping a scanner would activate. Unfortunately, nothing did. He took out his metal mallet and hit the wall, hoping for some type of opening. After the third hit, red emergency lights turned on above him and alarms started blaring in his ears. Next to the hidden door on his right, a piece of the wall slid away and revealed a scanner above a digital touchscreen.

A robotic voice overhead stated, "BREAK-IN ATTEMPT DETECTED. BREAK-IN ATTEMPT DETECTED."

Henric moved over to the screen and held up his I.D. "Please submit a retina scan or identification card."

He let it scan the I.D. and waited for the sirens to stop, but they kept blaring.

"Welcome David McCathey. Please enter your lab password."

_Password? Crap._ Henric tried to think of possible answers.

_Aquarium? _He typed it all lowercase. Incorrect. _Maybe it was sealife?_ He tried again. Incorrect. _Was it mermaid?_ The ringing was started to hurt his ears now. Mermaid was also incorrect. Henric punched the screen but it didn't damage it. _What could it be? _His dad was smart, but he was shah simple. There wouldn't be any numbers or capital letters. He'd forget the password almost as soon as he set it. The password on his phone was literally six zeroes, so this password shouldn't have been hard to guess.

Henric decided to give it one more try before trying to smack it with the mallet. He put his own name on the screen, all lowercase. The sirens stopped at once, and the door unlocked and opened up.

"Welcome, David McCathey. Thanks for signing in."

The wall slid back over, concealing the screen and scanner.

Henric pushed the door open and peered inside. This part of the factory was drastically different from the last area. There were several rows of computers in the middle of the area, most of them looking smashed in or broken. The floor was slightly flooded and littered with shards of glass. Along the right side were tall test tubes that reached the wall, some completely shattered. They must've tested on people too. _But why would they?_ Henric looked to his left and saw the black tubes connecting to another large tank, also extremely dirty. In this one, he could see dead fish floating upside down in the tanks, though a few bottom feeders were eating algae off the glass. He saw one dark fat fish swallow a small dead beta in one gulp.

This part of the factory wasn't just one huge area like the one he just came from, there were partitions hanging from the rafters separating it into sections. Henric carefully walked over the glass to a computer that like it was working. The screen was on but the keyboard didn't work. He went along the rows trying each computer. They were either broken or didn't have anything in the screens, no apps it widgets. He even tried booting them into safe mode, to no avail. Walking past the computers, he kept going until he saw a sign pointing towards the maintenance room past a partition. Henric squeezed through an opening and looked around. Indeed, there was a door to a maintenance room but there were also a collection of empty test tubes together, surrounding him in the little area he had squeezed into.

They all looked damaged in some sort, some had fractures along the side and some had black soot on the inside of the glass at the top. The lid to one was completion broken, just hanging on the edge of the glass. There was a weird stench coming from past the tubes and Henric tried to slip between two of them. He put too much pressure on one of the tubes and it cracked, causing him was to fall into the dirty water and sending more glass everywhere. Luckily, he was unhurt. He picked himself up out of the disgusting water and find himself staring at another huge tube, this one more like the one Eve could swim to, but it wasn't connected to a tank system, just sitting in the middle of this dark factory floor. It stunk wanted was dirtier than all of the tanks so far combined. Algae and weed growth had taken over the tank, making it almost look like a long closed terrarium instead of an aquarium.

He noticed the hatches and seals on the side that enabled it to connect to the other aquariums. _They should've cleaned this a long time ago. _He pinched his nose and looked closer into the tank, trying to see if any creature could survive those type of conditions.

He squinted and noticed something big. It had scales, but it wasn't moving. He moved up to see how big it was and froze. The scales stopped... and skin continued the rest of the way up.


	4. Chapter 4

Henric backed away from the tube, still staring in shock. Noticing the maintenance room behind it, he walked around the tube, not taking his eyes off it. Reaching the door, he noticed something had already tried to break through it. It was dented and scratched up, almost broken through. Henric, mallet ready, turned the knob and was surprised it actually opened. _Why was the door messed up if it was unlocked?_

Opening the door he immediately see a big panel on the wall half shut. He opened it and looked at the switches. Instead of actual names there was numbers and letters for the rooms. The map was no help either, so Henric flipped every single one. The light in the room went out and came back on as he switched them. Just like every other computer, the one on the desktop was offline. Worthless. He picked up a flashlight and headed back out the room, staring at the tank again. _It was just my mind playing tricks on me, right? There's nothing in that tube._

Henric didn't even believe himself. He cut on the flashlight which was way brighter than he expected it to be, and slid it against the glass. Unfortunately, he was right. He could see the silhouette of the mermaid in the glass. He didn't know why, but he felt sad for the mermaid. He didn't know her, he couldn't see her face, he didn't even know if she had a name. But seeing her, trapped in filth... A creature that amazing deserved better.

He could still help Eve though. When the power on, her filter should start back working. After that, he'd keep going and find his dad. Going back from where he came he saw how bad the state of the labs was. The whole place had been trashed. Papers, chairs and tables had been thrown all over the place. Henric saw shoes watches even a phone. He picked it up but it wouldn't turn on. _Great, _Henric thought, lunging it as far as he could. _There's nothing here but broken machines and bizarre animals._

He made it back to Eve's tank and found her laying on her side, poking at the starfish resting on the glass. As soon as she saw him she sat upright and smiled. Then she looked at the filter and noticed it wasn't on. She frowned and pointed to the filter, which hadn't turned on.

_Damn. What else do I need to do? _Henric walked around the tank and looked at the wall, searching for an on switch. Turning around and seeing the ladder, he gazed up at top of the tank, which seemed like a very long way up.

"They made this for a reason, and I doubt they were you giving you fish food." he muttered as he began to climb. Eve watched him closely, slowly going up as he went up. He started to get tired halfway up the stairs and then he made the mistake of looking down.

"Holy crap!" He closed his eyes and held on for dear life. _Why didn't just make an elevator? _He thought. _Or an escalator? How did anyone climb up this thing?_

Eve watched him while he rested until something took her attention. She swam away from him right before he opened his eyes.

"I got this... I got this... I'll be a up there in a moment Eve." He opened his eyes and noticed she had swum away. He peered between the rungs and saw a bunch of fish swimming through Eve's tank. She had swam passed them and was holding onto something long and wide.

_Oh my God it's a shark!_

Eve was holding the shark's tail in her right hand and trying to grab the front of it with her left. It thrashed about angrily, trying to chomp off her hand as she wrestled with it. She finally got a hold of it with both hands, clamping its mouth shut. She raised it and and bit into it's back, right where the dorsal fin was. She left a huge chunk missing out of his back, causing a small spurt of blood to shoot out. The shark's tail moved feebly but it didn't resist anymore. Henric continued to climb up the ladder, not wanting to see what was going to happen to the rest of the shark. When he finally made it to the top, gasping for air, Eve was done, and she was watching him again.

There was way more space on top than he first thought. There was a long platform for him to stand on that went all around the tank. In front of him was a dock like area that extended out over the water. Henric looked across the water and Eve raised her head above it. Her skin was greyish and covered in little spots like freckles. Her irises were a pale blue, almost the color of her sclera. She gazed at him intently, unblinking, and he gazed back for what seemed to be an endless amount of time. Then he got to his feet and walked onto the dock. It didn't wobble like he expected, it was sturdy. He walked all the way to the end before she dipped back under the water.

"Wait! Come back up!" He yelled, putting his hand in the water and splashing furiously. Eve stuck her index finger up out of the water. Her finger alone was already longer than Henric's entire body. It wasn't pruned Henric reached out and rested his palm against her finger. He smiled. Her hand was cold as ice but he didn't care. Just to physically touch her... This was unbelievable.


	5. Chapter 5

She lowered her hand and her head rose above the water again. Henric turned around and marched towards the filter.

He opened a square door on the wall and looked at the panels in front of him. At the top was a timer labeled Cleaning Cycle. It read 2:39 and continued to count down.

_So it is working! _He thought happily. _Her tank will be clean in no time._

Henric kept looking down the panel. A bunch of things were labeled and had lights next to them.

The light next to TANK CLEAN was bright green.

TANK EMPTY was red.

FILTRATION AREA CLEAR was orange.

SILVER FILTER CONDUCTORS was flashing green.

_Conductors? _He wondered. _For What?_

He started to hear a mechanical whirring sound and turned around. In the corner of each side of the tank there were thick silver poles with holes and lights down the side. Eve approached them with an odd curiosity, as if she had never seen them before. He watched her swim up to one, dazzled by the flashing lights. She reached out out to touch it and quickly snatched her hand away as if it had stung her.

_Wait... no._

Henric looked at the panel again, looking at every label. "This, this can't be right. This, this huge machine, this should be the filter. What are those other things?" Henric began rambling to himself while running around the filter, trying to find something, anything that could help him. He looked down at Eve, who was still holding her hand. Small fish swam around her, unbothered. One unlucky fish also swam into the light pole, and as soon as it did, It jumped back awkwardly, until turning on it's side and floating upwards.

_NO!_

Henric ran back to the panel and looked at the timer. 0:39.

"No,no, no, no, NO!" Henric took his mallet and frantically started destroying the panel, beating through the frame and revealing the wiring behind it. Once the timer hit ten, it began to beep with each second, even though he had destroyed the screen.

_9_

"No!"

_8_

"Damn it!"

_7...6...5_

_"Please!_

_4...3...2..._

Henric's body seized up and a tingling sensation spread throughout his limbs. It got warmer and till it started to burn, and he realized he couldn't feel his arms. After the final beep a loud alarm blared once and the water started to bubble up. Henric tried to back away from the panel but everything turned black.

#

When Henric woke up, he couldn't move. Everything was blurry and out of focus. His head felt like he had bashed it in with his mallet, the pain was unbearable. Liquid filled his ears and he could hear his heartbeat ringing in his skull. Despite every ounce of his body screaming, he lifted his head and looked around. He couldn't see much because everything was blurry, but one thing was close enough for him to recognize. The ladder. He must've fallen off the tank. How was he alive?

He started seeing spots and closed his eyes for a second and took deep breaths.

_For Christ's sake, it hurts to breathe._

He opened his eyes and looked down. His left leg we bent at an odd angle. His body was in so much pain he thought everything was broken, but he knew for sure his left leg was, he could see something jutting out of it. Seeing it made him gag and that movement alone made the world a scarlet blur.

_Oh God. Focus on something else. Anything else._

Henric stared at the ceiling and thought about the sky. He thought about the sun, the clouds, the stars at night. He thought about the wind, the trees, and playing frisbee with his dad. He didn't even know if he would see him again.

Nearby, he started hearing a banging sound, getting closer and closer.

_I'm hallucinating. _Henric thought, trying to ignore the sound. _I'm dying._

The banging continued to get closer and closer until it stopped at his side. He felt a piercingly cold metal slide under his legs and back and suddenly he was being lifted off the ground.

"AAAHHH!" He saw a million colors as his body howled in agony. He was about black out again but he couldn't, he had to see what was carrying him. He looked up and saw a faceless figure, like a mannequin in a mall, but there was a white glow where eyes would normally be. Henric screamed and freaked out, causing the figure to stop moving. Henric thrashed around until the figure dropped him, and instantly regretted it. Landing on his leg again took all the strength and resistance he had left. When the robotic figure bent down towards him, he noticed something behind it.

The lights inside Eve's tank were off and the red emergency lights were on. The water level was lower than when he was on top of the tank. The glass was still dirty, so the filter thing hadn't worked. Squinting so his eyes could focus, Henric cold see it.

He could see her.

Eve was still and unmoving, her back leaning against the glass. Her head was bowed and she was being surrounded by dozens of tiny fish.

"Eve...no" He whispered.

The figure held his palm up to Henric's face and sprayed an odorless gas. Within seconds, Henric was fast asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Henric woke up freezing cold, laying on his back. A bright white light nearly blinding him. He was in a hospital room, and his leg had been set and put in a casket. He felt strangely calm, too calm. Most of the pain was gone, just a little numbness here and there. The figure was sitting at his side, watching him.

"You're conscious." It spoke. It's voice was an awkward blend of monotone and someone's real voice. It bothered Henric.

"What are you?" he asked it. It waited a moment before speaking, looking at Henric from head to toe. Henric guessed it must have been scanning him.

"I am Wireless, a service automaton designed to help scientists with a variety of tasks. Your dire situation was beyond I had to download a total of 117 files to be able to nurse you to recovery. Would you like to know all of the drugs and procedures I administered?"

"No."

"Understood."

They sat in silence for a while, Henric looking at the ceiling while the automaton watched him.

"Wireless, where did you come from?"

"I came from my charging station."

Charging station? This thing was battery powered? "And where is that?"

"Inside this laboratory."

Henric rubbed his eyelids and sighed. "Can you be more specific?"

"Absolutely not. David McCathey has no clearance, and neither would his son."

Henric sat up and looked directly at the automaton.

"You knew my father?!"

"No." It replied bluntly. "David McCathey is the last person to use their I.D. to enter this building in the past two weeks. You are the only person I have encountered in the four hours since the power came on. I presumed that you'd be his son, otherwise I would've terminated you for trespassing."

Henric was so deep in thought he didn't realize the automaton just said it would've killed him.

"Two weeks, you said? Nobody's entered the facility in two weeks?"

"Yes."

"Has anyone left since then?"

The automaton got quiet after that question. Was it trying to hold the truth from him or wa.s it searching for an answer?

"I am uncertain. I was undergoing an update when the power shut down. The update failed and partially deleted my memory."

"Of course." Henric flipped off the covers and swung his feet over the side of the bed. He gingerly tested his foot in the cast before standing up.

"Have you fully recovered?" the automaton asked him.

Henric turned around. "Why?"

"I wouldn't leave unless I was positive you are in a stable condition. I am going to search for my creators."

"Why don't I come with you?"

"You don't have the clearance. I would advise you not to follow me in a restricted area. You won't be walking out of it."

Henric rolled his eyes and saw a big red bag with the biohazard label sticking out the trash. He grabbed what looked like a nurse outfit and a lab coat from chair beside him.

"If that's the case, I'm fine."

"Good. Your father made you well, you know. There aren't many that could survive that fall. The remaining medications are in that cabinet. You most likely will not require them."

Wireless marched out the room before Henric to respond. Henric took a few steps slowly and noticed a pair of crutches leaning against the counter next to a bottle of pain pills. He slid them into his pocket and began to limp towards the door.

A robot saved my life. Henric thought as he reached the door. He didn't even know where he was. How did it take him to a hospital?

Henric could see the automaton walking down the hallway. He wouldn't have been able to keep up with it if he tried. He looked down both sides of the hallway and saw no one coming. He didn't hear anything either.

This must still be the lab.

He made his way down the hallway and reached a common area with a bunch of couches lined up on the right and a tv. The left had an elevator, two vending machines and a receptionist's desk. As soon as he got to the elevator he noticed it didn't have an up or down button, just a black I.D. scanner.

"Seriously?" Henric muttered. He turned around and headed back to the room when he heard a faint coughing sound nearby. He stood still and listened. Following the sound, he reached a room 2 doors away from his. Gazing down at the handle he saw a scanner next to it, and already figured out what he need.

Why the hell does everything need an I.D.? He thought. You can't walk ten feet in here without scanning something.

Reaching his own room, he propped his crutches against the counter and pulled the bag out of the trash. As soon as he ripped it open he was greeted with the smell of blood. Even worse, the clothes were wet. Pulling out the I.D., Henric dumped the bag back in the trash and rinsed his hands and the I.D. off. Hobbling to the room, he held up his I.D. and the door slid open. Inside was a room much like his but with a TV and flowers. A sickly looking teenage boy was laying in bed with a oxygen mask on his face. His eyes widened and he snatched it off, sitting up.

"How'd you get in here?!" He rasped, his voice only slightly louder than a whisper.

"I...uh used my I.D." Henric didn't know what to say the guy. It had been since he'd seen an actual person.

The teenager's eyes narrowed. "Bullshit."

He threw the covers off him and tried to stand. He was extremely skinny, he shook as he stood before falling back in the bed.

"Do you need help?" Henric asked him, unsure if he should get closer.

"Ask a doctor to bring me a wheelchair. I can't walk." The boy was breathing heavily, but Henric was sure it was because of anger and not a respiratory issue.

"There's uh, not any doctors here, actually. Or nurses."

The boy turned to him. "Why? No, I don't care. Go get my dad then."

"I don't know who he is, but I haven't seen anyone here besides you."

"How'd the fuck did you get in my room then?!" He shouted.

"Where's my dad kid, don't fuck with me!" The boy glared at him but considering his state, Henric wasn't afraid.

"I swear on my life, I don't know." Henric held up his hands. The boy watched him intently and finally realized Henric wasn't lying.

"Who are you then?" He asked. He looked at the badge in Henric's hand, but couldn't see anything.

"My name is Henric. Henric McCathey. What's yours?" He asked the boy.

He stared at him without answering for a second, and looked angry again.

"What now? What's wrong with you?" Henric asked him, confused.

"That ain't your name kid, because it's mine."


	7. Chapter 7

"Huh?" said Henric. "What do you mean, it's yours?"

"Exactly what I said, it's _my _name. What type of joke is this?"

"I'm serious, it's my name. I don't know what you're talking about."

They eyed each other suspiciously. Henric couldn't tell if the boy was joking or not.

"What's your dad's name?" The sick Henric asked him.

"His name is David."

The sick Henric's mouth opened slightly after Henric said that name.

"What's yours?" Henric asked him. The sick one didn't reply.

"What's your mother's name?" He asked, ignoring the question.

"My mother's name is Rachel, but she passed a while ago." Henric confided.

There was a different kind of shock on the older Henric's face, like he just figured something out.

"Are they your parents too?" said the younger one, not even believing his own words.

"No. At least, that's not my mother's name. Let me see that ID for a second."

Henric handed it over and the sick one glanced at it quickly.

"This was his fucking plan. That bastard…"

"What? What happened?"

The sick Henric looked at the younger and sighed. He tossed the I.D. back and laid down, closing his eyes.

"Get me a wheelchair and I'll explain."

"Why should I?" said Henric.

The older one sat up and snapped.

"Because you _obviously _don't know what the hell is going on. You don't know your way around this place, you don't know where my father is, you don't even know what you are!"

Henric just stood there while the sick one yelled at him.

The older Henric looked away from the kid and stared at the wall

"Look, forget what I said. Just get me a wheelchair, and I'll help you. We'll find my Da… David, and get out of here."

"Okay."

Henric backed out of the room with his crutches and the door automatically shut behind him.

I don't know what I am? What is he talking about? Henric wondered as he walked down the hallway. That guy wasn't making sense. But he at least seemed to know more than Henric did, so he decided to help him. He started by checking the other patient rooms, but his ID wasn't working. None of the other rooms opened. He headed back towards the lobby and raced the receptionist's desk. Built into the desk was a touchscreen monitor for patients to use when the receptionist was busy. Just like everything else in the lab, it had a scanner. Henric leaned his crutches against the side of the desk and pressed the ID against it, half expecting it to fail, but it didn't. He was greeted by a welcome screen showing his dad's name, followed by a help menu. The screen read:

Schedule Appointments

Manage Appointments

Check Prescriptions

Refill Prescriptions

Request Aid

Henric pressed Request Aid and it presented him another menu.

Human

Automaton

Crutches

Knee Scooter

WheelChair (Manual, Pediatric, Power)

He pressed the human button just to see what would happen and a sixty second timer appeared. After it hit zero a pop up appeared saying, "No one has responded to your request. Please try again later."

"I figured as much." Henric muttered. He pressed the wheelchair button and selected power.

Suddenly, the desk started sliding to the right. Henric grabbed his crutches before they fell and stood back as the wall behind the desk lifted and a wheelchair rolled out on a conveyor belt. Henric sat in it and layed the crutches across his lap. He'd always been fascinated by wheelchairs but never needed one until now. After giving this one to the sick guy, he'd come and get one for himself.

Cruising back to the room, Henric scanned the ID and turned his crutches upright so he could get through the door. Upon seeing him, the sick guy smirked a bit and sat upright.

"Too lazy to walk back, I see. I'd have done the same."

"My leg is broken, if you haven't noticed."

"I did, and that's how I know you don't know shit about this place. You should be fine. Come help me get into the chair so we can get out of here."

Henric helped him into the chair and together they left out the room.

"Okay. Now let's go to the lobby so I can get one of these." said Henric.

"What? No." The older one replied. We need to find the medicine. We do that and neither of us will need wheelchairs."

"What do you mean find? I thought you knew your way around this place?" Henric accused.

"Oh I do. But most medicine is locked up, and I'm pretty sure you at least know you need clearance for damn near everything." The older one replied.

"Yeah, I know. I have some leftover medicine in my room, the robot guy left it in a cabinet." said Henric.

"If you met a 'robot guy', he's probably an automaton. They don't call those robots. Is this your room?" the older one pointed to a room that was clearly lit from the inside.

"Yeah, let me just scoot past you to swipe the I.D-"

"No need." The older Henric pulled out his own ID badge and swiped it. The door slid open, much to the younger one's surprise.

"How did you do that?" The younger Henric asked. The older one gave him his lanyard and he looked at it. There was a scientist ID card on one side and his actual government ID on the other. Henric read it aloud.

"Henric McCathey. Eyes: Brown. Height: 5'11. Date of birth… August 17th, 1991."


	8. Chapter 8

"You're seventeen years old?!" Young Henric asked.

"That's what surprises you? Not the name?"

"Well that too, but you've been around for seventeen years and-"

"How old are you?" the older asked the younger.

"I'm… twelve."

The older Henric shook his head in disbelief. Young Henric started to get mad.

"What? You don't believe me?"

"Not really, no. We did not exist at the same time, it's impossible. We would have seen each other, I would actually know who your mother is. I'm David's real son."

"So you're saying I'm not fucking real?! You're saying that I don't exist?! Do you know how stupid you sound?"

The older Henric could see how angry he was and tried to change the mood."

"Let's forget about this, just for a second. Where's the medicine? We can heal your leg, and fix me up."

Young Henric glared at him before sulking across the room. "It's in this cabinet. What happened to you, anyways?" Henric reached down and started pulling out pill bottles and canisters."

"Well, the person we both see as our father did this to me. He afflicted me with something, I don't know, but it wasn't serious. He made it look serious though, none of the other scientists and doctors could explain it. He had the cure all along. He did it because I disagreed with them and their practices. They were doing horrible, inhumane things. They were defying God. I wouldn't stand for it, so he decided to take me out. I've been in a medically induced coma for who knows how long, and no ones taken care of me. That's how I know he doesn't give a shit. My muscles all atrophied and I woke up alone, two days ago. Unable to get up, unable to call for help. I was praying for death before you came along. Now all I want to do is find him and kill him."

The younger Henric didn't know what to say. "Wow. I'm sorry." He grabbed the rest of the bottles and just dropped them on the counter."

"Jesus Christ did you get hit by a truck or something?!" Older Henric exclaimed as the younger started organizing them by size. "The automaton gave you all those?"

"He said he did. Or, it said. Some of these haven't been opened though"

"Answer the question. What happened? You wouldn't need all of that for a broken leg. Pass me that red one, please."

"Young Henric tossed him a red pill bottle. "I fell off an aquarium. A really tall one."

"The mermaid ones?" said older Henric, reading the bottle. The seal hadn't been broken, so the automaton hadn't used this one. He pointed towards the cups and the younger filled one up with water for him.

"Thanks."

"Yeah. Those are the ones."

The older Henric poured a bunch of red pills into his hand and counted them.

"Don't you think that's too much?"

He downed them all at once and took the water.

'Nope, i'll be fine."

"Dude!" Young Henric snatched the bottle from him. You're going to overdose."

"No I won't. Pass me that oxygen mask with the gas container connected to it."

Older henric strapped in on and started breathing heavily. "This'll help."

Young Henric watched him breathing into the mask and stood there.

"Why were you on a mondo tank?"

"Mondo?" asked the younger.

"Yeah, Mondo. The Mondo Mermaids. That's what their nickname is. I don't know the scientific name, because it's long as hell."

Younger Henric noticed the older was starting to sweat, even though the room was cold.

"Yeah, well, the tank was dirty, and it looked like she wanted me to clean the filter, so I did. I...I tried to."

"That's literally impossible.. It takes a hundred men three weeks to clean the entire tank, and one of those weeks is them just dismantling the filter alone. Plus they have to coerce the animals out of their and into the main one."

Henric sat their in silence, every word the older said replaying back in his head.

"I didn't know. I thought I could help her, and now…"

"Don't think about that way. That mermaid, it was an abomination. It shouldn't have existed. These scientists went against God and created so many many horrible-"

Older Henric started coughing vehemently, holding his chest. He pulled off the mask and pulled at his shirt.

"H-hot!" he rasped. "So h-hot!"

Young Henric helped him pull off the shirt and started to fan him with his hand, but it got worse. Older Henric started foaming at the mouth, convulsing and coughing until he finally stopped. He laid slumped in the wheelchair, unconscious, his chest still rapidly moving.

"Hey!"

The older Henric didn't respond. He didn't look sick and skinny anymore his body was fit and bulked out, like Popeye after eating spinach. Henric moved forward and put the oxygen mask back on the older Henric's face.

"I guess I'll wait till you recover." said Henric, sitting on the bed. "If that ever happens."


	9. Chapter 9

Older Henric woke up ten minutes later, in a daze. "What happened?" he asked groggily.

"You overdosed on these," young Henric shook the red bottle. "I told you that was too much."

Old Henric shook his head and stood up. "It did its job. Look at me, I'm back to normal!" He tested his legs in a little dance, making Henric smile. "Your turn. You should only need one."

Young Henric looked at the bottle, skeptical.

"I don't know about this. I don't even see a name on the bottle."

"It's coded. You'd need to own a scanner or be an automaton to read the label. Just take one and we can leave. You won't even need your crutches." Older Henric handed him a cup of water, and he took the pill."

After a few minutes a warm feeling overtook his body.

"Alright. Let's go." Older Henric helped him stand up.

He stepped gingerly with his leg.

"It's starting to feel kind of numb." Young Henric replied, staring down.

"Just wait. Soon your leg will be good as new. But we need to talk about this, and it's going to be hard to explain."

"What?"

"Everything. Let's start with Dad. His name is David McCathey, right?"

Young Henric nodded.

"Right. And technically, we both think our name is Henric. That needs to change."

"I'm not changing my-"

"Wasn't asking you to." The elder replied. "I'm changing mine. My mom called me Ricky when I was younger, so I'll go by Rick."

Don't you have a middle name? Henric asked.

"Yeah, but I refuse to use that." Rick answered. "So I'll just be Rick from this point forward. Now, I need you to listen to me calmly and carefully as I explain this. Do you understand?"

Henric nodded.

"Good. Now, you've seen the mondo mermaids. Have you seen the real ones?"

"Real?" Henric asked. "What do you mean by real?"

"There are four types of mermaids in the aquatic division. You have seen the mondos, the huge ones that swim through the connected tanks. There are also the real ones. They are way smaller than what you normally think a mermaid would be, some barely reaching five feet in length. Their whole body is scaly and they don't think or act like people, despite all the tests, brainwashing and torture the scientists did. They don't like light and they aren't even mammals, they live very deep in the ocean. There's clone mermaids, and they either look like humans, similar to the mondo, or they just look like the real mermaids."

"Clone mermaids?" Henric asked quietly. "Why would they make something like that?"

"Why did they make you?" Rick replied, staring at him. "Because scientists are always curious, and curiosity is the devil." Rick replied.

"They throw ethics and morals out the damn window. Those mondos? Clones. They can barely keep them alive, only four were successful. Two males, two female. It was still pointless, they couldn't get them to procreate. That's not even the worse thing they did. The Janus mermaids… they are…" Rick shut his eyes and shook his head. "I saw them do the procedure once."

"What's a Janus mermaid?" Henric waited, watching Rick's sick expression. He looked like he was about to vomit.

"They take someone's body, presumably with permission, or waiver or something. The cut it open. Saw off the lower half and take the bottom half of a mermaid clone. They put it together. They cut open the chest and do something to the lungs. Finally, the lobotomize the person. They change them, make them forget everything from their past life, and put them into a tank. They've even done it to their own fellow scientists, all in the name of science."

Henric didn't know what to say. He could hardly believe him. He hadn't seen any other mermaids besides the mondo ones. Then again, Seeing Eve alone should be proof of what Rick was saying.

"Wait what is that?" Rick moved past him towards the door. He pressed his ear against it but didn't open it.

"There's footsteps. Not human. They don't have machines this big in the medical wings." Rick told Henric.

"It's probably Wireless, the robot I told you about. I mean, automaton."

"It sounded like this when it walked?" Rick asked, wild eyed. "The medical automatons are lightweight, nearly silent when they walk. It wouldn't be this loud."

"Yeah. It was kinda big. It said it had to download new medical procedures and stuff, It didn't know enough to help me."

Rick backed away from the door and motioned for Henric to stay back.

"Please be a laundry bot. Please be a laundry bot." Rick chanted, keeping his eyes locked on the door.

"Slowly, the door slid open, revealing the 6th foot tall robot Wireless, looked directly at Rick. Instead of white the eye indents on his face glowed a light blue. He looked at each boy and stepped further into the room, letting the door close behind.

"Henric McCathey and Henric McCathey. "It's surprising to see that you are still alive."


	10. Chapter 10

"What do you mean? You said I would be okay." Henric replied, confused.

"Not you," said Wireless, before pointing to the older one. "The real one."

"You're a security bot, aren't you?" said Rick staying completely still. "Why are you surprised I'm alive?"

"You haven't been seen since they replaced you." Wireless glanced at Henric. Henric took a step back, but didn't speak.

"Who's here?" Rick asked the automaton. "Who's giving you orders?"

"In my exploration of the facility since power was restored, I have not encountered any human individuals besides the two of you. I am not receiving instructions from anyone."

Rick shook his head, furious. "You're fucking lying, I hate that. I hate you damn machines. That boy is a clone!" Rick pointed at Henric. "Even still, he is a minor. You cannot operate on a minor, clone or otherwise, without permission. WHO GAVE YOU PERMISSION?!"

Instead of answering the eye indents on his face switched to orange and began to blink.

Rick snapped his fingers to get Henric's attention.

"This is the second floor, section C. I want you to go back down to F, but with my I.D., not dad's.

It doesn't have access to the same areas, so it'll send you to the museum. I want you to learn everything you can about this yourself and place, then go to Dad's office, the one in section D."

Wireless started walking towards Rick. He ran towards it head on, hoping to knock it over but it swung, smacking Rick into the wall. He got up holding his mouth, which was already dripping blood.

"Madison," he said breathlessly. "That's the password. Now RUN!"

Henric darted passed the automaton just as it turned to stop him. Rick tackled it from behind and Henric escaped the room.

"Don't think! Don't hesitate! Just Run!" Rick shouted just as began to take a beating from the robot. Henric could hear the heavy handed hits nearly all the way down the hallway as he rushed from the scene. He quickly got into the elevator and scanned Rick's I.D.

He tried to calm down, staring at the I.D. that had his name. But not his face. An I.D. that belonged to the 'real' Henric McCathey. It didn't make sense. He had a mother. He could remember almost all of his birthdays, the parties. He remembered Christmas and going out to parks. His Dad wasn't always around, but he was there for the important things.

Henric dropped the I.D. and slid down, remembering how long it took the last time. _Rick...Henric... he fought the robot so I could escape. Why? He thinks I'm a clone. He thinks I shouldn't exist, but he stayed behind so I could escape. I don't understand._

Sitting alone with his thoughts, he realized he was so shocked he didn't even think about his leg. He didn't feel any pain or numbness at all anymore. It was like he'd never broken it. He managed to take off the cast right before the elevator stopped. When it opened up, it was nothing like the last time. Instead of a gigantic aquatic factory the ceiling was kind of low and the walls were covered with paintings and picture frames of various scientists. The floor was covered in dark blue carpet and the walls were mismatched black and white. The room the elevator led him into had a big check-in desk to the left, with signs pointing to different exhibits down the hallways. Henric hopped over the desk and looked for papers, keys, notes, anything that could help him find someone.

"Welcome. What exhibit would you like to see?"

Henric jumped up and raised his hands. "I'm not trying to steal anything I swear!"

"Welcome. What exhibit would you like to see?"

Henric looked and saw a woman standing at the desk. She wasn't facing him.

"Mam?"

She didn't answer him. He walked closer and tried to touch her shoulder, but his hand went right through it.

"Welcome. What exhibit would you like to see?"

Henric looked above him and noticed a little projector on the ceiling.

_She's a hologram. _Henric thought. _A really good one too._

He hopped the counter and looked at it from the front. The hologram was really well done. Henric stared at it for a while, and he still couldn't tell it was fake. The model was a short woman, but she was still taller than Henric. He thought it might've been the heels but remembered it was a hologram, high heels didn't matter. The woman was brown-skinned with short curly hair and pretty dark eyes. She wore red lipstick and had a smile that made Henric happy, even though he didn't know her.

"May I speak to...uh, a curator?"

"No curator is available to speak to you at this time."

She continued to smile and stare right through him.

"Okay... May I speak to a representative, or an assistant?"

"No representative is available to speak to you at this time. No assistant is needed to explore the exhibits. Please, take a pamphlet and enjoy the experience."

She pointed at the desk where there was a set of pamphlets for each of the exhibits.

Mermaids, Humans, Automatons, and Machines.

_A human exhibit? _Henric wondered. He knew they wouldn't be showing basic anatomy there. He grabbed one of each and spoke aloud. "I'm going to all of the exhibits."

"Please proceed to the exhibit of your choice."

Henric opened the one about mermaids and walked towards the exhibit. The hallway was pitch black and there was a stand with a bunch of shades near the entrance with a sign that said take one. Putting on the shades, the entire hallway illuminated blue. Both walls were aquatic displays filled with water, rocks, and a few sparse plants. Why was it so empty looking?

Suddenly a blur swam past quickly and hid under a rock. It was a very long, dark creature, Henric could only see part of its tail. When he got close to the glass, the hologram lady's voice popped up on the intercom.

"Of all the mermaids in this exhibit, Hadal Mermaids are the only ones given to us solely by mother nature. Hailing from the Hadopelagic zone, these mermaids come from the deepest trenches of the ocean. They are a far cry from mermaids in the popular media. Their skin and scales resembles that of an anglerfish, and they do not need oxygen to breathe."

Henric was staring at the sign that said Hadal Mermaids when he saw something else dart past the glass. He tried to keep up with it, but it was way too fast. It swam into a little cave, preventing Henric from getting a closer look.

"Come on." he whispered, face pressed against the glass. "Come back out."

There was a button on the glass with a speaker grill next to it. Henric figured it was to ask a question about the mermaids, not to speak to them, but he pressed it anyway.

_Surprise, surprise, nothing happened._

Henric waited as he saw a small green glimmer from within the cave. He tapped the glass once, twice, three times and finally a blackened demon creature swam out of the cave, lashing out at the glass.


	11. Chapter 11

"Hadal mermaids have special eyes to see in the dark but are not used to a lot of movement. They food selection is rather small, feasting mostly on pearlfish and eels. In extreme cases they survived by eating marine snow, but it is not known how long a creature of its size can subsist on such a small serving size."

The dark little creature continued to butt its head against the glass, staring at Henric maliciously. It… kinda looks like a human. Henric thought. Barely.

The weird creature was short and slightly humanoid with their lower half being a fishtail, like most normal depictions of mermaids. But it still had very big differences. It was a leathery black with shiny scales, looking like a fusion between a bat and a fish. It's upper body was small and emaciated, like a person with severe anorexia. It had no hair on the top of it's head, but small fins and ridges that looked like strands of hair. It's eyes seemed to fade from green to blue, and it had no pupils.

A small eel tried to swim past the mermaid creature but failed. As soon as the mermaid sensed its presence it lost all interest in Henric. It dashed towards its prey and caught it in its mouth, swimming in circles while stirring up dirt with its hands as it ate. Henric moved along to a door with a sign that read, "Please Remove Your Sunglasses Before Continuing."

He took off the glasses, momentarily plunging himself in darkness before opening the door to the next exhibit. This area was more like the aquatic factory. The walls and ceiling were all glass panels and fish could be seen floating around. Unlike the tanks at the factory, these huge aquariums were perfectly clean and so brightly lit Henric had to squint for a moment. The underwater flora was so multicolored and beautiful Henric almost forgot what the exhibit was for until he got close to the glass.

"Limited information is available for the remainder of the exhibit." the hologram guide spoke from the intercom.

The sign for this area said H-Mermaids, Specimens #7 & #8 M:1 F:1

Henric looked around but didn't see any mermaids. He turned around and went to the other side of the glass, hoping that would prompt the hologram lady to speak, but she said nothing. He pressed the button on the screen and spoke aloud, "Where are the mermaids?"

"The mermaids in this aquarium were provided by Bickerstaff Labs."

Bickerstaff? Henric had never heard that name before. His dad had never mentioned them. Then again, he never told him about Rick, or the mermaids, or this entire floor of the building.

"There are no mermaids in here." He spoke, holding the button.

"If you have any questions about the exhibit that have not been answered by the information already provided, please press the button and repeat your query in an interrogative sentence.

You didn't say anything at all about this exhibit. Henric thought, annoyed. He pressed the button again and tried a different question.

"What type of mermaids are these?" He asked and waited.

"These are variations of the Hadal Mermaids transferred from Bickerstaff Labs. No more information is available at this time."

Henric walked to the next exhibit hoping there was something to see. This lab was similar to the one before, except the ceiling wasn't connected, it was black with two long fluorescent bulbs in the center. The glass walls went up to the ceiling, but the water didn't. It stopped slightly above the halfway point, but this area didn't have a bed of sand at the bottom of the glass. It continued further down where Henric couldn't see. The door to the next exhibit had a poster on it with a drawing of two mermaids, one was the length of the entire poster and the other was as small as the bigger ones fin. The poster was light blue and artsy, with a caption that read, "If you thought those were cool, wait till you see what's next!"

Henric thought about Eve and the other mundo mermaid he saw rotting away in a test tube.

I've seen enough of them.

He turned to leave the exhibit and it happened.

He turned to his right and a man was watching him. Or, half of a man. His lower half was almost like Eve's, a beautiful fish's tail with a metallic shine glancing off the scales. It shone from blue to green. But it wasn't like Eve. He wasn't like Eve. The point where the fishtail and torso meet was red all the way across, with sutures holding them together. It was puffy and swollen, it looked infected. If the man felt any pain, he didn't show it. He had dark bags under his eyes and could barely keep them open, even while he was staring at Henric. Henric ran to the glass and knocked, waving frantically.

"Hey! Sir! Can you hear me? Can you read my lips?"

The merman blinked slowly and mimicked him, waving back. Henric noticed a medical identification band on one hand and a medical bracelet on the other. He looked weary, maybe even drowsy. They were four red slits on the side of his neck, clearly not healed completely. If they were helping him breathe, they weren't doing much. He did not look like he was supposed to be in the water. Henric started motioning upwards towards the surface.

"Hey! Swim up! Up!" The guy gave him a confused look before yawning. He yawned. Underwater.

Instantly he began choking violently, eyes bugging out in shock.

"GO UP!" Henric shouted. "UP!"

He pressed his face against the glass and looked both ways. He couldn't see any land for the merman to land on. He ran through the giant mermaid door but to the left was a massive concrete wall that stretched so high up Henric couldn't was like his dad's area, which meant he wouldn't be able to access anything that would get him inside an aquarium. Especially not with Rick's ID. He rushed back to the area where the mermaid was choking just in time to see his sutures rip apart, the man's abdomen away from the fish tail, clouding the water with dark red blood.


	12. Chapter 12

Henric was on his hands and knees back at the lobby, trying to vomit. He gagged several times but couldn't puke. He couldn't get the image out of his mind. It made him sick.

When was the last time I ate something? He thought. Then another question entered his mind.

How long have I been in here?

Henric tried to block out the image when the hologram reappeared.

"Thank you for visiting our Mermaid exhibit. The next exhibit is to your right."

He sat there in silence, breathing heavily.

Why did Rick tell me to go here first? What was I supposed to be learning? Henric laid against the lobby desk for support. He hadn't learned much about this place, and Rick had already told him about the different mermaids. Rick also told him that he was a clone. When Wireless said he was surprised to see Henric alive, he wasn't talking about Henric, he was talking about Rick, the 'real one'. It still sounded unbelievable, it sounded insane. If Rick wasn't lying about the mermaids he probably wasn't lying about Henric. He stared at the pamphlets in his hand and opened the human one. It was a lot thicker than the others, he wondered why he hadn't noticed that before. There were dozens of drawings inside, but no actual photos of a clone. No way to tell the difference between a clone or a human. Henric checked his arms and wondered if he had a serial number somewhere.

_I need to stop wasting time._ He thought as he got up and walked to the human exhibit. Unlike the mermaid one, the hallway for the human exhibit was was extremely bright with glass walls on each side. Both the floor and the are behind the walls was white, and it look like something was supposed to be on display back there.

"Most information on the human exhibit and its specimens is classified, so my responses will be limited and a live guide will answer any questions you may have." said the voice of the hologram lady. He looked around and waited, knowing full well no one would appear.

_I hate this place_. He thought as he continued to walk through.

The hallway opened up into a big glass circular room, with floor to ceiling display cases that had nothing inside them. Hologram windows showed up on the each case, displaying the human anatomy. Or clone anatomy. There was no difference. In the center of the room there was a stand with a piece of paper and a thick metal bracelet on top. It was just out in the open. Anybody could have taken it. Henric walked up and picked up the card. It read 'Try Me' on one side and 'This device is fully operational' on the other. He pressed a button on the side of the stand and said aloud, "Tell me about the bracelet."

The stainless steel T bracelet is a Tacarria product made specifically for clones who had a rushed development."

"What does that mean?" he asked.

"Clones in rushed development had to endure an accelerated growth rate to get them to the age and physical shape the scientists needed for various experiments. Most clone bodies are extremely unstable because of this procedure and die very prematurely without care. The bracelets are designed to indicate the time a clone has left before they expire."

Premature? Expire?

"Who were the clones duplicated from? Who were the original people?" There was a moment of silence before the hologram guide spoke again.

"I am unable to provide that information. Please seek out your live guide for further details."

"What about the clone's birth? How were they created?" Henric had to wait the same amount of time for the same answer.

"I am unable to provide that information. Please seek out your live guide for further details."

Henric rolled his eyes and picked up the metal bracelet, surprised by how heavy it was. A blue light above shone down on him, creating a big square in the center of the room. Suddenly, Henric heard a male's voice over the intercom but it was automated, instantly evaporating the little hope he had.

"The T bracelet, although a prototype, is fully functional and is intended for the clones you see around you, and not real people. As such, it does nothing when worn by a normal person. Feel free to try it on for photos but please remain in the blue square and return it when you are done. Thank you."

The bracelet looked a little like a fancy metal watch without face or buttons, and it had a sliding mechanism that revealed a digital screen underneath. He slapped it onto his wrist and it magnetically clicked together, reminding him of Ben 10's omnitrix. A purple T logo appeared on screen for a few seconds before going black again. Then the calibrating showed up in blue with a little line going across the screen. When it reached the end it said 'Calibration Complete' and displayed some numbers on screen.

56 years, 7 months, 32 days.

Henric swiped left and the year and months disappeared, now displaying 32 days, 18 hours, 44 minutes. This was it. The bracelet wouldn't have worked if he was human. This is probably what Rick wanted him to see.

This means nothing I know, nothing I remember, is real. My dad isn't my dad, he's Rick's, the real Henric. Which makes me a fake. But how can I be fake? Rick said he didn't know my mother's name, is she fake too? Why would my.. Why would David do this to me? Why would they do this to anyone?

Henric started to cry and tried to yank off the bracelet, but it wouldn't budge. Suddenly it got tighter, and he felt a sharp searing pain in his wrist.

"Stop trying kid." said a voice behind him. "That ain't coming off until your heart stops beating."


	13. Chapter 13

Henric turned around and raised his hands. "Who are you and why are you pointing a gun at me?"

The man was wearing a bulletproof vest over a black suit and breathing heavily. His hair was unkempt and his face was sweaty.

"I'm David. David Jones. You don't look like an escapee. You look... Domesticated."

"What are you talking about?" Henric demanded.

David squinted at him. "McCathey?"

"Yes! That's me! My name is Henric!"

"Oh, Thank God." David lowered his gun. "Your father told us you'd be coming. Give me a second." He pulled out his phone and began to type in a number.

"Yeah, hello? I found one of them. No, the younger. Haven't seen the other one yet, but that's not the point. Why would he know where the real one is?"

Real one? He knows I'm not real. Wait, of course he does, I have on the damn bracelet. Why is he looking for both of us? Dad didn't tell either of us the other one existed.

Henric looked around the room. There were no other ways to exit and this guy, David was blocking his path. Something about this guy felt off, Henric didn't trust him at all. He slowly tried to move forward but David raised his gun again. "Don't move kid."

"Why are you looking for both of us?"

David stared at him, shocked, and hung up the phone.

"Both of us?" he echoed. "So you already know."

He started walking towards Henric, gun still raised. "Let me see the bracelet."

David almost touched Henric's wrist when two arms wrapped around his waist and flipped him backwards. It was Rick, face bloody and bruised but still alive.

"Get the gun kid. Get the gun!" Rick demanded as he pounded David into the floor, holding him in place. Henric hurriedly picked it up and aimed it at David.

"I'm gonna shoot on the count of five, okay?" he said, sounding braver than he felt.

"Whoa! No! Just hold, Jesus!" Rick finally tired out David and they both laid there, panting.

"Okay, kid. Give me the gun." Rick held out his hand but Henric tossed it, much to Rick's horror.

"Holy shit! Did my Dad teach you anything about gun safety?!"

"It's still on safety, I know that much!" Henric snapped.

Still panting, Rick got to his feet with a bloody smirk on his face.

"After waking up abandoned, I told myself if I lived I would kill everyone in this facility. Knowing some of you have a hit on me already makes that a lot easier."

David eyed him cautiously and wiped the blood from his nose.

"What are you waiting for, an invitation? I got a meeting with Michael Jackson and Stan Lee in thirty minutes."

"You seem a little too eager to die. Are you a clone too?" Rick asked him.

"No, you idiot," David showed his wrists, revealing only a smart watch. "Though I hate that I share a name with your father."

"So you knew him?" Rick held the gun so close David almost went cross-eyed.

"Unfortunately, yes. I was stationed by his side, along with another guard after the chaos. The other scientists called him David instead of doctor, so I would always get confused-"

"What chaos?" Henric asked him.

David looked at him then back at the gun in his face.

"I'm not explaining all this crap. You don't have the guts to kill me, anyway."

Rock cocked the gun. "You will if you don't want a slow death. He's got a mallet." Rick motioned to Henric. "And you've got ten fingers, ten toes, and I'm pretty sure a very sensitive little-"

"Okay, smartass. Who taught you torture?" said David sarcastically. Henric pulled out the mallet and tapped it in his hand.

"I'm sure you know how the labs operate, being the son of McCathey." Rick nodded but Henric didn't move.

"Go on."

"Tacarria sent something to Bickerstaff which they didn't want, so they sent it here, Lavaunzier. The only problem is, we don't have anything here to contain it. We accepted it because they told us it was alive. But it's not alive, It's... w-we don't fucking know. We don't know if they found it or if they made it or-"

David's phone rang, silencing him. He glanced at his pocket but dared not to move.

"Give it to me. Now."

David pulled out the phone slowly and held it up for Rick, who promptly snatched it and read the screen.

"Caller ID says unknown. Figures." He answered the call and put it on speaker.

"Speak and I'll shoot a hole in your hand big enough to put your foot through it." Rick whispered.

"Jones? What the hell's going on? Say something, damn it. Did you get the kids?" Everyone stayed silent, eyeing each other quietly.

"Did something get you?" the voice asked again. It sounded feminine.

"Yeah, we did. The kids." said Rick grinning. "Tell me where my dad is and I'll let him live."

Rick didn't know what he expected to hear after that, but it definitely wasn't laughter.

"Live?" said the voice incredulously. "He failed to you retrieve you. He's going to die regardless."

"Wait, a second-" David started.

"Oh, you're there with them, listening in? Good. We have your location. We'll get those kids without you. Get religion David, if you haven't already. I hear Lavaunzier has some pretty interesting things lurking around."

The call ended and Rick smashed the phone on the floor. "Damn it!" he shouted. "Why was I so stupid?!"

"We need to go right? Like, right now?" Henric asked looking anxious.

"Yeah obviously. We're going back to Dad's lab, like my original plan. We should be safe there, unless of course, he's the one orchestrating this." Rick said those words but Henric shook his head.

"Why would you even assume that?" he asked Rick.

"Because I've known him a hell of a lot longer than you have. Hey target practice, lead the way. I'm sure you know the route."

David got to his feet with his arms raised, walking a steady pace with Rick closely behind him.

"Since you two seem to have all this figured out, how long have you been fending for yourselves in here, and how many escapees have you encountered?

"What do you mean by fending for ourselves? And what's an escapee?" asked Henric.

"How do you not know? This little menagerie has fallen apart. Almost everything they've created is free and pissed off, and the smarter things are waiting. They're waiting for us."


	14. Chapter 14

"Stop trying to spook us and keep walking, the elevator is this way." They made their way through the library to the elevator, with Rick checking over his shoulder every second.

"Welcome. What exhibit would you like to see?"

Rick froze. David had no clue and kept walking to the elevator.

"Rick it's just a hologram." Henric told him, but Rick was already staring at it. The elevator dinged and opened, snapping him out of his trance. He shot the projector on the ceiling, destroying the hologram.

"Hey, if I were you I would save those bullets for the real monsters!"

Henric and Rick both turned around to see David, smiling with blood on his teeth, frantically pushing what was presumably the Close Door button. Rick shot again- a great shot, because David howled in pain and dropped to the elevator floor.

"That door better stay open!" Rick shouted.

Even though he was in pain David made the effort to stick a foot out the door, stopping it from closing.

"What's wrong with you?" Henric asked him. "Why are you wasting time?"

Rick shrugged him off. "I don't know, maybe it's the brain damage. Let's go."

They get into the elevator and help David up, who was clenching his head. Henric moved his hand revealing a bullet hole in his left ear.

"Wow," said Henric. A couple inches over and you'd be a pirate.

"A dead one." Rick chimed, keeping the gun trained on him.

"I might not be in the position to make negotiations here, but say we have a truce." David cupped his ear and one hand and held out the other to shake.

"Why should we?" asked Henric.

"Because this is a long ass elevator ride, and I'd appreciate it if there wasn't a gun in my face the entire time. I'm sure your arm is tired too, right?"

Rick lowered the gun. "Fine. Try anything and you'll regret it." They sat mostly in silence besides David whimpering over his ear. Rick was just about to tell him to shut up when the whole elevator stopped. The light flickered out, and the door groaned.

"We're here?" Henric asked.

"Yeah, but it shouldn't have stopped like that." said Rick and David simultaneously. They both looked nervous. Rick now pointed the gun towards the door. "Bickerstaff must be here." David whispered.

"You think they caught us already?" Henric asked aloud.

"No. but if enough people come back here, the escapees will be on the defensive"

Suddenly, they heard a loud groaning sound from the other side of the door. Bit by bit, someone was forcing it open.

"Get ready." David whispered.

"Duh." Rick murmured, eyes trained on the door.

"One... Two... THREE!" Rick waited till he had a clear shot and as soon as the man got the door fully open, Rick shot him twice in the chest and the man collapsed.

"There could be more. Stay down!" Henric and David dropped to their feet as Rick stepped out of the elevator, surveying the room. Henric stared at the body as a pool of blood formed under it. The man was soaking wet and bald, the only form of clothing he wore was dark red shorts that appeared to be underwear. Henric noticed his eyes were still open, and he had a clone bracelet on his wrist. Counting down from seven minutes, the screen on his bracelet glitched out repeatedly, skipping numbers, saying calibrating several times before hitting zero and shutting down.

"He wasn't alone. Someone must've taken out the elevator for him. There's people running, but they're unarmed. This is section C." Rick called back to them, still on alert.

"Dad's office is in section D, so we're close." said Henric while he helped David up to his feet.

David left the elevator, but held Henric back.

"Those are clones. There's a lot of things they could be running from, but the first that comes to mind is Bickerstaff."

They heard screaming and gunfire in the distance. Henric pushed past David and saw that there was blood everywhere. Scratches, claw marks and holes were all over the walls and glass windows had been shattered.

"This wasn't like this at all earlier, I was here a few hours ago. What happened?" Henric looked to David for answers. Rick did the same.

"What? How am I supposed to know? I was sent in alone to find you two."

"And why is that?" said Rick, looking back every time he heard a scream or gunshot.

"Because this place is overrun with creatures, I told you already. Damn near everything they experimented on. Walk alone, and they most likely avoid you. The bigger the group of people is, the more likely they are to attack. That's another thing too. I'm not sure if the Bickerstaff agents are actually hunting these creatures on purpose or if they were ambushed."

"Which one would be better for our sake?" asked Henric.

"Them getting ambushed, obviously. That means they should be too preoccupied to worry about us. But if they were already hunting, we'd be in trouble. That clone's bracelet would lead them right to us."

"Well, how do I take it off?" Henric replied, tugging at it.

"You can't take it off." said Rick and David in unison.

"Fuck this thing!" Henric shouted, slamming the bracelet against the elevator door.

"Kid, stop!" Rick replied in a hushed whisper.

"No! Fuck both of you! Fuck this bracelet, fuck this place, fuck this whole damn-"

Rick practically slapped Henric when covering his mouth. Henric was furious but the look in Rick's eyes was absolute fear. Rick moved out of the way to show a flickering figure walking alongside the wall, giving off a white luminescent hue. The figure appeared to be a tall man, and he was staring at them. Rick pointed his gun towards it and Henric backed up, staring at the ground long enough to see the dead clone's blood was moving towards the figure.


	15. Chapter 15

"Do not shoot it. Piss him off and we all die." David whispered, putting his hand on Rick's shoulder. "That came from Tacarria."

The figure appeared to be an old man, maybe a janitor. He wore dark overalls with the name Tacarria etched in red. He wasn't transparent but he appeared to be intangible because his hand went through the wall.

"So it's a ghost?" Rick asked as David slowly nudged them over to the right.

"Ghost? You could call it that. But it's not dead. In fact, It probably never died. That's the type of crap Tacarria does. They told us it was alive. I've dealt with it before while looking for you two. All it does is clean up random stuff."

"Clean up? What type of ghost cleans up things?" asked Henric. They moved slowly and quietly to the right as the ghost approached them. The scratch marks on the wall and broken glass disappeared as it walked towards the elevator, almost soundless except for it's shallow, heavy breathing. They finally realized the ghost wasn't coming after them, it was going after the dead clone. When it reached the elevator they were about twenty feet away, but instead of running, they watched. They watched as the ghost kneeled down and picked up the clone's body, they watched as the blood rose off the ground and flew into the ghost. When it stood up it turned to look at them and the body in its arms began to glow. Seconds later and it vanished, leaving behind only the bracelet, which clanged as it hit the floor.

"Shows over, let's go." said David, who was now in front. "That's all it does as long as no one bothers it."

They didn't hesitate a second time. They made their way down the hall to section D, bypassing other clones running from all directions. One dropped to the ground in front of them, and everyone but Henric jumped over him. Another clone tried to wrestle the gun away from Rick, but David surprisingly swung and knocked him out.

"Thanks, that was close. You okay too, kid?" They looked back and saw Henric several feet away, looking at a clone's body.

"He's still breathing. We can help him!"Henric replied to them.

"Are you stupid?" the clone himself rasped. He lifted up his wrist, showing the bracelet. It was blinking 00:00:00. "My times up kid."

"I can help him die faster," said Rick, pointing his gun at the clone. Henric shielded him.

"NO! What's your problem?!"

"He's not a person he's number. Just dna and code, no originality. He looks just like the one I shot at the elevator."

"Well what about me?" Henric asked. Rick stared at him for a moment before raising the gun, aiming at Henric's forehead.

"You're no different."

"FREEZE!" someone behind Henric shouted. A soldier in dark blue gear shone light on the four of them.

"Drop the weapon!" he shouted again.

"Wait hold on! I'm from Bickerstaff too." Instead of pulling out an ID or badge, he pushed deeply into his left palm and held it up. There was a blue light blinking under his skin. This seemed to calm the soldier. He lowered his gun and observed each of them. He noticed the dying clone on the ground and shot him in the head, much to Henric's dismay.

"No!" he screamed. The soldier noticed the bracelet on Henric's wrist and trained his gun on him.

"Tell me what's going on." the soldier told David.

"I'm David Jones. Early recon. I was sent by Bickerstaff to oversee the scientists personally. After everything went to shit, One of the scientists sent me after his two kids. That's why we're here."

"Why does this one have a clone bracelet then?"he motioned to Henric.

"Because the scientist made him personally, I was there! He didn't even have that bracelet until half an hour ago. He took it from the gallery in the museum." David wiped sweat from his forehead.

"What reason would I have to lie?"

The soldier thought about it for a moment before finally putting down his gun. He walked up to both David and Rick and shook their hands.

"I'm Colter. Colter Harnett."

"David Jones."

"Rick. Henric McCathey. He's me." Rick pointed at Henric, who glared at the soldier.

"That must be wild, huh?" asked the soldier. "Having a clone of yourself?"

"It probably would have been, if I wasn't in a coma when he was created." said Rick. "My dad tried to replace me and left me to die, so I'm not really fond of clones anymore. Loved him when I was his age though."

Rick stared at Henric so intently he thought he was about to get shot on the spot.

"Come on," Rick finally broke his penance stare and lead the way down another hallway. "We gotta get the hell out of here."

"Amen to that." said Colter. "But this ain't the way out."

"You're coming along?" David asked Colter.

"I'm not trying to get murdered by one of those Tacarria things. They sent us here with no other directions than shoot to kill. All of you seem to know the layout, so I'll just be extra protection for now, until we make it out of here."

"So you don't have to report back to Bickerstaff?" David asked him.

Colter shook his head."I don't think they expect us to survive anyway."

Rick snapped his fingers to get their attention.

"We're headed to my dad's office first. My mother is...gone, and I need a way out. I need to support myself. I don't have any other relatives in the U.S."

"But Dad's alive. He can take care of us."

"I guess you forgot what I said earlier." Rick told Henric.

They reached the office and saw that it had been completely broken open, the whole door knob was broken off.

"Jesus. Who did this?" David asked.

"I did." Henric replied.

Everyone entered and Colter stood guard at the door. Rick tried to check the desk drawers when Henric stopped him.

"I already checked, I didn't find anything."

Rick reached under the drawer and pressed a button, revealing a secret compartment. Lifting it, they found a folder, a bunch of keys on a key ring, and a fat black circular object.

"What is that? asked Henric.

"It's a fob." Rick replied, tossing it to him. "A little remote me and Dad made that can be programmed to control any car. Well, not any car, just newer models that come with their own fobs already. It also has an ir blaster that can turn on tv's. I created it when I was fourteen."

Henric gazed at the chunky little object in his hand. The plastic was uneven and warped, it looked like a melted chew toy.

"How did you make it?" Henric asked him.

Rick didn't take his eyes off the folder, but he reached for the fob.

"I wanted to prove to dad I could work alongside him, so I said I'd do it all on my own. I took my mom's grill lighter and melted my legos together and broke some of his old key fobs to frankenstein my own. It worked, suffice to say, with a little programming from my laptop."

"What's in the folder?" asked David, reaching for it. Rick slapped his hand away and handed the folder to Henric.

"Intel on aliens? Man made Dragons? Flying horses?"

"No, but I'm sure they would have worked on all of those if they had enough time. This is just copies of my personal information. My social security, insurance, dental records. My birth certificate, you know, shit that proves I'm alive, and that he shouldn't exist."

Henric looked up at Rick but he had already stood up and started typing on the computer.

"His password is madison? All lowercase?" asked David.

"Yep. These scientists are smart, but often simple. Their too forgetful for complicated passwords, that's why they have so many biometrics."

"So what are we waiting on now? You got your files." said Colter at the door.

"My Dad, that's who." Rick opened up an application on the homepage and a red Lavaunzier logo filled the screen with a loading bar at the bottom. Once it filled up the screen switched to a white background with a model of a mermaid on the right and a literal wall of text on the left. Random things were highlighted but it was still difficult to read.

"God, how can you look at that for so long? I'm getting a headache and I'm behind you."

"It's an emergency upload of all his information, all his data. It's stored here. It isn't just computer files, it includes information inside his own head. You know how you have that Bickerstaff tracker in your hand, David?"

"Yeah."

"The Lavaunzier scientists have something even more complex . It acts as a failsafe in case the scientists die in the middle of their work, or get captured and interrogated. It also lets us know where they are located, so we are going to find him."

They waited as the screen loaded, the whirring sound of the computer fan filling the room. Everyone jumped as some slammed against the door, begging to be let in.

"Come on please! It's taking everyone!"

"Let him in. We need to know what he's talking about." said Rick quietly, eyes glued to the screen.

"But it's a clone." said Colter, preparing to shoot.

"Oh no, come on man! Please?!" the clone cried.

"Let him in!" Henric demanded, walking over to stop Colter.

"Fine." Colter backed away and the clone fell into room, crawling away from the door. He wore red shorts and was just as soaked as the others. His left arm looked shrunken, and was much skinnier than the right.

"Close it," he rasped. "Close it. CLOSE IT!"

"It's broken. That's why I'm standing guard." Colter responded. "What did you mean by it's taking everyone?"

"I-it. The… little..thing in the…" The clone struggled to catch his breath.

"Spit it out." Colter demanded. "It's the only reason you aren't dead yet."

"He could be expiring," David commented. "Like the other one."

"No." said the clone, raising his right wrist. "I've got three more hours."

David lifted Henric's wrist and looked at it. He dropped it and looked at the clone in confusion. "You said that like that's plenty of time."

"What is it?!" Colter shouted, pointing his gun at the clone again. "I won't ask another time."

The clone stood up slow, raising his arms.

"It's blue and it glows. It looks like a child, a boy. When something gets near it, it disappears. Everything that gets near it ends up warped, and that's when it's calm. When it's pissed off… it goes ballistic."

"Sounds like the ghost guy from Tacarria. We've dealt with it before." David replied.

"But he said it was a child." said Henric. "We saw an old guy."

"If they are the same," said the clone. "We're in trouble."

"What the hell?" Rick exclaimed. Everyone looked over to see a layout of the lab on the screen with a blinking red dot in the center.

"What is it Rick?" Henric asked him. "Where's dad?"

"He's in the shore room. That's where they released the human mermaids into the water."


	16. Chapter 16

"Why would he be there, after all this time? I've been looking everywhere for him."

"But you haven't been able to go everywhere, you haven't had access to everywhere. Luckily for us, there's a shortcut to the shore room behind the mermaid exhibit. We need to get there."

"No, we need to get out of here before we get killed." said David. Colter nodded in agreement.

"Finding your dad isn't a priority.."

Rick pointing his gun at him scowling. "I think you've forgotten your place here. I am the only one here who can truly be free. All of you are being tracked, so how far do you think you'll get? What makes you think you can walk away from this?"

"It's just in my hand. I'll get it out, eventually. Your dad is a scientist, he could probably get that bracelet off. What about you Colter?"

Everyone looked at Colter, who was watching Rick point his gun at David.

"Mines in my back. I don't know where exactly, but I'll have my wife get it out. But now I got questions. Why is the kid pointing the gun at you? I thought you were taking them to their dad?"

David stammered, trying to find an answer while Rick put his folder and fob into a satchel.

"Y'all can chit chat if you want. I gotta find my dad. This group is getting a little big, anyway. Henric let's go."

Henric and the clone followed suit, leaving Colter and David in the room.

"Listen, the details aren't that necessary. We should worry about getting out alive. The older kid knows his way around, I'm not worried about him. He has his own badge for christ's sake. I say we leave them to it, and get out before the cavalry comes and blows this place to shit, Bickerstaff agents and all."

Colter nodded, and they shook hands. "Screw those kids."

They headed out the door and found the kids and the clone standing perfectly still.

"What is it?"

David look past them and saw a child, younger than both Rick and his clone. He had on a cute little white lab coat, with a blue and yellow striped shirt and black pants. Glowing just like the man from before only his light was blue instead of white. The child appeared sleepy and disoriented, as if he didn't know where he was.

"That's him. That's the kid." said the clone.

Suddenly they heard rapid gunfire coming from the left hall, even the child turned to look, albeit slowly. A clone ran into view only to be instantly gunned down by his pursuer. A soldier like Colter marched forward, towering over the clone before seeing the child.

"What the hell are you? AHHH!" The soldier and clone started glowing and were lifted off the ground. The surrounding walls cracked and exploded all flying towards kid at once. A blinding light and a searing ringing sound tore through everyone's head, causing them to drop to their knees in pain.

"WHAT IS HE DOING?!" David shouted. The light was gone, but the sound persisted. It felt like someone through a flash grenade in his face, he couldn't see anything.

"I don't know!" said Colter. "But I am gonna stop it." Colter took a grenade off his belt and threw it towards the kid. Squinting, he waited till it was close enough and aimed for the grenade.

"No! What did I say?!" the clone shouted.

Colter ignored him and shot the grenade, causing a huge explosion at the end of the hall. The ringing stopped. They opened their eyes and the other clone and soldier were gone, but the kid was still there sprawled out on the floor. He wasn't glowing anymore, but he was still in one piece, with no blood in sight. Looking at each other, they saw that everyone's ears were bleeding. The clone also had blood pouring from his nose, but he seemed too happy to care.

"I can't believe it. It worked!" said the clone. He put his left hand on Colter's shoulder, which Colter shrugged off in disgust.

"What the hell happened to your arm? Did you just grow deformed like that?" Colter asked him.

"No. I was trying to help another clone escape that thing and my arm almost got caught up in its blast. I had to let him go."

"This isn't over." David interrupted. "If this facility couldn't kill those things when it was fully operational what makes you think you can kill it with a grenade?"

"He's right. Let's move. I'm taking the stairs down, since the elevator is broken. If yall want to get out easy, go past the kid to the main drag and ride the escalator up to the first floor."

"The elevator took half an hour already, imagine how long the stairs are gonna take." David told him.

"I don't give a damn. I gotta find him." Rick began to walk away and Henric followed.

"I'm not stepping over that thing." said Colter, still staring at the child. "I'm sticking with the kid, for now."

He started to walk in their direction when David grabbed his shoulder.

"Wait. Look back at it."

A faint white glow was getting brighter, but it wasn't emanating from the child. The old man from earlier walked in to view and picked up the child.

"There's two of them?" said Colter, horrified.

"He's going to make him disappear." David told Colter. "He did it earlier to a clone."

The child glowed, brighter and brighter until finally it moved. It didn't disappear like the clone. It moved. Apparently the older ghost was surprised too. He lowered the kid down and looked at it, but it was staring at David. Colter, and the clone.

"Shit. Hey Kid! Wait up!" Colter pushed past David and ran down the hallway as the child shrieked a horrible sound, so awful the ghost man himself covered his ears. It ran towards them while everything behind it was torn apart by an invisible force.

"WHAT IN GOD'S NAME DO THEY MAKE IN THAT LAB?!" Colter shouted. David and the clone caught up to him, and they were all running towards the stairway door. Colter turned around a few times to shoot at it, though it had no effect. David slammed the door open, and the clone bounded down the steps. Henric and Rick were barely four flights down when they looked upwards in confusion.

"What's happening?" Rick called out.

"That child!" David shouted on his way down. "He got back up!"

Colter was still in the doorway, shooting away. He clipped off three grenades, threw them one by one, and slammed the door. Instead of running down like David, Colter jumped down a whole flight of stairs at once, hitting the landing, and doing it again.

"Is it following you?" Rick asked them.

"What the hell do you think?!" David shouted. The stairway lights went off, leaving the bright red exit signs like beacons in the dark. The whole building shook so violently they could barely stand up. They heard a huge explosion above them, and pieces of metal rained on their heads. Each flight of stairs began to break apart from each other, and suddenly everything was floating. If Rick hadn't pulled Henric back, he would've plummeted to his death. Everyone stopped in place and looked up to see that the door had been replaced by a gaping hole in the wall and the child was hovering in the air. Scowling, he muttered something under his breath and everyone fell, thousands and thousands of feet into nothing.


	17. Chapter 17

Colter held onto the railing with his left hand and shot the stairs above him with his right, trying to break them apart.

"Got a plan?!" He shouted. "Anybody?!"

"We could try to jump onto one of these doors!" shouted Rick. "But they probably wouldn't budge, plus we could get flattened by the stairs above us!"

"So this is it? This is how we die?!" David screamed, holding on for dear life. Henric was petrified, his eyes were closed, and he didn't even make a sound.

"Have any of you taken the serum?!" Colter yelled down at them.

"What serum?" asked David.

"Yes!" Rick replied.

Colter stopped shooting and dove off his staircase, landing on David's. He threw himself off of it and landed next to Rick, who helped him regain balance.

"Are you serious?" Colter asked him, staring directly into his eyes.

"Yeah. In pill form."

Colter shook his head. "One little pill doesn't-"

"Oh, it was way more than one. I damn near died. Kinda like now, so if you have a point GET TO IT!" He screamed.

"We might be able to tank this. We could shield the others-"

"I'll stop you right there. I don't give a damn about the rest of you! If you hadn't followed me, this wouldn't have happened!"

"But it has happened, so help me think of something!" Colter barked at him.

Rick looked down and caught vertigo. It still looked like an empty void but the red exit signs and rushing wind made it worse. He had been handling it well up until now. He could fill his stomach churning as he leaned against the railing.

"Okay, okay. This is obviously very long, we've been falling for a while. Maybe, if we find a way to climb back up, all the stairs will pile together. We won't be crushed by anything and we might not be flattened by fall damage!"

Colter nodded. "It's worth a shot." He pried Henric off the rail and motioned for David to catch him. Henric screamed as he flew but David managed to catch him.

"Now how do we get back up?" Rick asked Colter.

"I can jump it, but I take it you never trained for anything?"

"No. I took those pills today."

Colter's eyes widened. "How the hell are you standing?!"

"HEY SOLDIER BOY!" David shouted. "WE GOT MORE PROBLEMS!"

Colter and Rick looked up and saw a bright white light at the edge of the gaping hole. It was the ghost man, and he didn't look happy. He extended his hand and siphoned the boy's light from him. Instead of attacking, the boy surprisingly ran. He floated down to one of the staircases and began running down, hopping from one staircase to the next.

"No, No NO! Take the clone back so I can jump!" David shouted. Henric was still too terrified to move.

Colter caught him and David and the other clone jumped together. Colter pulled off his last grenade to throw it when the ghost man materialized in front of him.

"SShhhhhit!" Colter fell backwards down the steps dropping the grenade. The clone caught it in his left hand and Rick stopped Colter from falling. When the boy saw the man he stopped and tried to run back but it was too late. The child was pulled in like a tractor beam, lifted off his feet and suspended in air. His face was expressionless and his light continued to fade. The ghost man raised his hand and placed it on the boy's head. In a fraction of a second, they both disappeared and suddenly they were rising back up, all the stairs flying back to the way they were before. Everything clicked back together like dusty legos and the lights flickered back on. Everyone laid down on the stairs to rest.

"I'm not sure if I even want to know what just happened." said Colter. "But I'm glad I'm not dead."

"Yeah well, I got about two hours." said the clone, staring longingly at his wrist. "Hey kid," he looked at Henric. "What's your number?"

Henric still a little shell-shocked, frowned. "I don't have a phone number."

David and Colter chuckled to themselves as the clone tried to explain what he meant.

"No, I'm talking about the number that they identify you as in the lab. Your duplicate number."

Henric stared at him blankly. "I don't know what that is. I've never had one."

They sat in complete silence for a while, too exhausted to move. The entire time, the clone was fixated on Henric's bracelet.

"If you don't mind, could I see your bracelet?"

Henric obliged, showing the clone his wrist.

"Ah. I see." he backed away slowly and put his head against the wall, closing his eyes.

"What? Is there something wrong?"

"No, it's just… you're not like me. I mean, yeah you're a clone but you were actually born. You came out of a womb, I came out of a test tube. You technically don't need a bracelet. You'll live a full life."

"What about you? You can't?"

The clone shook his head. "That's why these bracelets were made, to tell us and our superiors how much time we had left before our bodies give up on us. Some have heart attacks, some have strokes. Some die peacefully while others beg to be put down. That's just how it is."

They heard shouting above that put a pause on their conversation. Colter reloaded his gun and got up.

"I'll check, make sure we aren't being followed." He jogged up the steps like he was preparing for a marathon.

"Is there anything to do? Like medicine, or a procedure that extends your life?" Henric asked him.

"There is one drug they use, but they only use it on clones trained in combat special ops. It's provided by the military, but it's too late for any of that though."

The clone started breathing heavier, clearly struggling. He slid his right arm under his leg.

"Hold on, wait, how much time do you have left?!"

The clone's eyes drooped, like he was getting sleepy.

"I don't want to know," he muttered, closing his eyes completely before Henric shook him.

"Stay awake, come on, my dad worked in this lab, maybe he could-"

"What's your name?"

"Huh? It's Henric. Henric McCathey. What's yours?"

The clone laughed a little, still swooning.

"I told you. I'm just a number. They never gave me a name. I'm not important enough."

"In my dad's office, didn't you say you had three hours or something? It hasn't been three hours, there's no way!"

"That's the biggest flaw in these bracelets." the clone mumbled, practically gone. "Their accuracy's a little off."

The door above them slammed open and they looked up in time to see Colter's head get shot off, chunks of brain and blood raining down on them.


	18. Chapter 18

Henric screamed out while Rick and David got into position. David had Colter's last grenade, and Rick was ready to fire.

"If you're thinking about anything stupid, don't." a voice called out, using some sort of loudspeaker. "We have you surrounded. In fact, we had an entire crew waiting for you in the museum below. Nobody expected you to take a nap on the stairs," the man laughed. "But here we are."

David and Rick whispered to each other, trying to come up with a plan. Henric tried to wake the clone up, but he was gone. His bracelet started beeping and Henric lifted his wrist. The screen read, COD: Respiratory Failure.

"If they killed Colter, I know they don't give a shit about me!" said David in a hushed whisper. "I might as well shoot myself now."

"If you think you can make it all the way down, you can't. We'd drop a bunch of grenades down and you'd be dead before you reached the bottom."

Rick and David looked down the endless flight of steps and came to a silent agreement. They slowly walked up the steps but Henric wouldn't move.

"Come on." Rick demanded. "He's dead and there's hundreds like him."

Henric reluctantly stood up and walked behind Rick, who slipped the gun in his pants. Rick glanced back to make sure he was still following.

"Raise your hands. I'm sure they want us alive."

They made their way to the top and David quickly dashed behind both of them.

"Let's just see how they respond first, okay?"

Rick muttered something under his breath but moved in front of the doorway.

"You can't be serious. I'm so sick of clones."

In front of them were two clones and three soldiers. The soldiers had on very dark red gear, unlike Colter's blue gear. One clone had the same gear as the soldiers and the other wore a suit. He was the only one not holding a gun.

"You are slightly mistaken. I am the original." The man showed his wrist and the clone showed his, revealing which one had a bracelet. "My name is Melvin. We aren't here to kill you two, we work for Lavaunzier, not Bickerstaff." Melvin made a gesture to his crew and they lowered their weapons. "Your friend is a coward by the way. Hello? You hiding behind the kids? We see you."

David quietly stepped forward, scowling. "Bickerstaff threatened to kill me, and seeing how you shot Colter's head off, I was sure I'd be next."

"We aren't here for you. You shouldn't be here at all. Lavaunzier can handle it's own problems, we didn't need Bickerstaff butting in."

"Yeah sure. Tell that to your mini me's running half naked around here."

Melvin's smile disappeared. "You're trying to get killed, aren't you?"

"Why are you tracking us? What do you want us for?" Rick demanded.

"We're just here to take you to your dad. That's all. If you want to know how all of this happened we can tell you on the way."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" said Henric "Let's go." Rick, Henric and David walked alongside Melvin while his crew trailed from behind.

"Shouldn't they be in front, in case something attacks us?" asked David.

"Nonsense." Melvin replied. "The only things out on these two floors are the Bickerstaff cleanup crew and the clones. And that's because the clones are the only creatures smart enough to escape. Fortunately for us, the clones running amok have all but expired. They don't keep the good ones here."

"Where do the good clones go?" Henric asked him.

"Military bases, other labs, some in the Belway network and some not, space… everywhere. I'm glad these are dead though. I get sick of seeing my own face every now and then."

They passed by their dad's office and saw that the door was fixed. The hallway wasn't littered with blood, bodies and bullets, it was completely clean. No damage, no destruction.

"Why is everything back to normal? This area looked like trash when we left it." said Rick.

"It was the clean up ghost, clearly. I'm calling it that because I don't know what else to and the scientists gave it a long ass number instead of a name. I don't know how, no, nobody knows how or why he does what he does. Everyone that tried to experiment on him disappeared."

"Did you see the kid just like him?" asked David. "That thing almost killed us before we could make it down the stairs."

"Oh, I have seen it." Melvin confirmed. "Tacarria makes the creepiest crap imaginable."

They made it back to the elevator without encountering anyone, or anything else. Besides the people around him, it felt just like it did when Henric entered some time ago.

"I need two of you to stay up here and dismiss any more Bickerstaff agents that come by. We're trying to keep this discreet."

Two soldiers walked away as Melvin pressed the down button. They entered and Melvin repeatedly pressed the down button, revealing the scanner Henric had seen before. Once he put his card against the touch screen display changed. The map disappeared and a list of areas popped up on the screen. Melvin kept swiping until he got to the bottom of the list and clicked on Mermaid Aquarium.

"Those can't all be real places." said Henric. "The museum only had four exhibits."

"That's because those exhibits are the four last levels of this lab. The scientists that oversee those floors are grouped together, and the museums are made to show investors progress. Well that, and to inflate their egos." Melvin replied. "There are twenty floors here, and most only know about three. It's much easier to make five stops instead of twenty, especially with an elevator this damn slow."

"But what was my... our dad doing this whole time? I've been through both of his offices and the lab, and I haven't seen a sign of him anywhere. Why didn't he come for us?"

"Henric stared Melvin down, his eyes demanding an answer.

"I'll explain when you meet him, but you have to do exactly as I say after that."

"And if we don't?" Rick replied, scowling. Melvin looked at him coldly.

"Then you'll die like everything else here."


	19. Chapter 19

When the elevator dinged it opened up into the aquarium room Henric had been in before he found Eve. Rick stopped walking abruptly and so did the soldier. Henric stood by him while Melvin, David, and the clone continued walking, blissfully unaware until Rick spoke out loud.

"Why are all the clones based on you?" David looked back but Melvin and the clone stayed still.

After a small pause he finally answered. "Because I was a success. They weren't snatching DNA from every employee, they were trying to cure diseases. They used sick people, people they thought they could help. I had human immunodeficiency virus and lung cancer. I probably had the shittiest luck imaginable, but somehow they saved me. I can't even begin to tell you how many failed."

Melvin raised his hands, and they were paler than a vampires. "By the time Lavaunzier had killed over ten thousand people before they realized that they were wasting time. Wasting resources. Their biggest success was me, so they began producing clones with my DNA which lead to big results. Let's keep walking, shall we? We're taking the long way, I have to make sure I've done everything I was sent to do."

"You just said you couldn't tell us how many failed, but then said over ten thousand died." Rick told him.

"That's because not all the failures died."

They walked past the big camouflage door Henric had left open and entered the mermaid facility. No one gazed around at the tanks in surprise and no one showed any fascination, but of course they wouldn't. They've been here already. Including Rick. After a long moment of silence, they made it to the cylinder and spotted a big splotch of half-dried blood with that outlined a human body, like a demonic snow angel.

"Oh my God," said Melvin in horror. "What did that?"

Rick turned to Henric. "Is that where you fell? From the tank?"

Henric nodded.

David and Melvin looked at him in astonishment. "How are you still alive?!" David asked him.

"The robot, I mean automaton, found me and carried me to the hospital ward."

"Why would you try to climb up there, anyway?" Melvin asked him. His clone walked away and examined the blood.

Henric accidentally looked up at Eve's corpse, her hair still swaying while she was being surrounded by tiny fish. The water had gotten much darker as time passed, and that made Henric realized he didn't know what time it was, or the day. He looked away from Eve and tried to hold back tears.

"I was trying to clean her tank." Henric replied, looking everyone but the tank and them. "Instead, I killed her."

Melvin laughed. "What? You didn't kill the mondo, I did. But that makes sense. I was wondering who turned on the power in the factory, but I didn't have time to pursue it. I flicked the filter switch on from your dad's computer upstairs and kept looking for you two."

Rick saw the anger his eyes and stood in front of him. "Let's hurry up and move past this, we've been in here enough already."

"WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU DO THAT?!" Henric screamed. He grabbed Rick's gun from his back and shot rapidly at Melvin. David ran to the side as Melvin got hit in the right shoulder. The clone guard prepared to fire but Rick quickly pried the gun out of Henric's hands and shot him in the neck.

"Everybody calm down! Just be calm!" Rick repeated.

"NO!" Henric roared. He ran up to Melvin and kicked him in a soft place, sending him to his knees.

"WHY DID YOU KILL HER! WHAT WOULD MAKE YOU DO THAT?!" He swung at Melvins face repeatedly, bloodying it up quite a bit.

"Your father did!" Melvin spat once he had the chance to defend himself.

Henric froze.

"Why?" asked Rick, keeping the gun trained between them and the guard, but he didn't look like he'd be much of an issue anymore.

"Everything has gone to shit, Why do you think this place is empty?" Melvin struggled to get to his feet after Rick pulled Henric off of him. "They all agreed on a clean slate protocol; get rid of any and all projects, even the ones with the most research done. They gave us access to all of our projects and told us what to kill." Melvin pointed toward Eve with his good arm. "She was going to die regardless, they could barely keep the others alive for nine months. Her project was scrapped before any of this started, they were just waiting for her to die humanely. That is, before their system collapsed and they had to get rid of it all."

Melvin limped over to his clone and kicked it in its back. "You alive?" he asked, bending down to check its bracelet. "Fuck. I left the others upstairs."

"That thing doesn't matter. We need to get to our dad, immediately." said Rick. Melvin nodded and David walked over to grab the clones gun. He smiled as Melvin glared at him.

"What? We're going to need an extra hand out here, seeing that your arm is out and your guard is dead."

"My left is just as good, so don't think I'm handing over my weapon."

"Wouldn't dream of it. Now can we all put the guns away? You all are my only way out." said David.

Rick did as he was told, but Melvin wanted to keep talking.

"What if Bickerstaff finds you on the outside?" he asked David.

"Most likely nothing. They'll assume I'm dead and won't care. If I were to go back to them however, that would be a problem. After I get the tracker out of my hand, I'm free."

"David McCathey. Home. _Freedom._ Let's go." Rick marched forward and Henric followed. Melvin ignored his injury and led the group again, this time quieter than before. They went even further until they found Henric's second discovery, the dead mermaid in the tube. This rendered some of them speechless. They stopped to stare and this time it was Henric who urged them to continue.

Grudgingly, they made it to a blank concrete wall on the side of the tanks, a spot Henric remembered from the museum, but there was no door. He knew better this time,

"Where's the security mechanism that opens the door?" Henric asked, trying to spot it.

"It's that camera right there," said Melvin, bitterly, pointing to a camera extremely high up.

"It has a 50x optical zoom. One of us needs to hold our badge up, and it'll let us through."

"All right." said Rick, pulling his out.

"No." Henric replied, holding his hand up. "Did you kill him too?"

Melvin looked confused. "Uh... who?"

"The mermaid...man? Yeah, him! The merman! He was a hybrid, one of those people you sewed to a fish's body. I watched him choke and convulse until his lower half ripped off and blood spewed everywhere."

"Ew." said David.

Melvin raised his good hand in defense and looked at Rick, hoping he wouldn't shoot him at the kid's behest.

"I didn't. Someone must have gotten out of the safety net that separates them from the full aquarium. It sounds like he didn't heal enough. That you can't blame on me, that was natural selection."

"There was nothing _natural _about his creation." Rick snapped.

"So you haven't done anything with the mermaids in the museum?" Henric asked him.

Melvin paused. "I didn't say that. I released them all."

"Released them into what?" said David.

"The open."


	20. Chapter 20

Rick held up his badge and they entered the mermaid exhibit. Right away, they could see what Melvin meant. Behind the glass they could see more than five, maybe as many as ten mermaids swimming together frolicking around in the open water. They all stared in wonder at the mermaids who paid them barely a passing glance. These weren't wounded or steal healing like the last one Henric encountered, these looked healthy and vibrant, their hair shone in the waves of the water and their eyes screamed delight. The females' breasts were hidden by red tops, unlike the Mondo and Hadal mermaids.

"I bet they're screaming, 'Free at last, free at last, thank-'" Rick cut David off. "Shut up."

"If you are getting rid of old experiments, why did you set them free?" Henric asked.

"This isn't freedom." Melvin replied. "It's just a bigger cage they can tire themselves out in until they die. They don't remember who they used to be, each one is lobotomized. Those smiles you see, that's the bliss of ignorance. They're happy because they're nothing more than animals at this point. They know nothing."

Convinced they'd seen enough, Henric started to go walk towards the entrance of the exhibit but noticed nobody had followed him. Melvin and David flanked Rick on both sides and repeatedly asked him what was wrong.

Henric got closer and when he looked at the glass, he saw her.

"That's… That's the hologram lady." said Henric.

"That's my mom." Rick responded, his hands shaking as he balled them up into fists.

"I.. I kept asking him, what we were going to do. I kept asking him when we were going to bury her!" Rick banged on the glass furiously but it didn't shatter. David tried to pull him away but Rick pulled his gun on him.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" Rick shouted. "All this place does is make abominations, monsters THAT HAVE NO REASON TO EXIST! This isn't nature, this isn't natural. ALL OF THEM ARE GOING TO HELL!"

David stepped back slowly, arms raised. "I know. I know how you feel. It's okay. You heard Melvin, they're ending the experiments anyway. Just calm down and remember where we're going. We're getting out, away from this."

Rick turned back at the glass and saw that all the mermaids had swam away because of him. He stared at the glass, his breathing getting heavier until he pointed his gun towards the glass window. "I'm not going to let her live like this."

"Rick no!" Henric shouted. Melvin was already running before Rick shot the glass three times, causing the whole thing to shatter and sending a huge wave of water out, knocking them off their feet and washing them out of the exhibit. They landed near the desk in the lobby, choking and gasping, but the water continued to rise. Getting to their feet, they saw the water was nearly knee level and still rising.

"How much water do you think was in there?" asked David while trying to get water out of his ears. He was touching his left ear gingerly, and Henric remembered that Rick had shot him earlier.

"More than enough to flood this whole damn museum!" Melvin shouted from the other side of the desk. He wasn't swept away like others but the water came up to his legs too.

"Do you ever think before you do anything?!"

Rick shook water out of his gun. "Just get me to my dad." he demanded. "I'm done talking."

Melvin slowly got from behind the desk and walked towards the big navy blue door. "This is where he is. Now it's gonna be flooded because of you."

He walked up to the door and held up his ID. A camera popped out at the top of the door like a cuckoo clock and scanned it. The red light became green then went red again and nothing happened. Melvin turned and looked at Rick accusingly.

"It won't even open because the water level is too high. We're gonna have to open it the old-fashioned way." He grabbed the door handle with his left hand. "Someone grab the other handle. They have to be opened at the same time."

As they pulled the door open water began crashing through, into the dark behind the door. Hemric looked back towards the mermaid exhibit, which was still pushing out tons of water.

"Why haven't any mermaids come through the glass?" he asked David, who was closest to him.

"That aquarium is massive on the inside. They probably swam to the bottom to avoid the receding water. They'll live, so he accomplished nothing." said David, even though Rick was still in earshot.

"Who said I was done with them?" He replied as he let go of the door. I'm going to ask my dad some questions first."

"About that…" said Melvin, touching his shoulder. "Let's hurry and get in, we're letting in too much water." He walked through the door and stood by it on the inside, ready to close it after they walked through. Him and Rick shut it and they looked around. The room mostly looked like a presentation room, besides a giant square hole on the far side of the room five tanks in the center. The tanks appeared to be made of titanium on the sides and two were shorter than the other. The right wall had a huge interactive board that took up almost every square inch while the left was filled with two hundred or more chairs.

"This isn't the shore room. We checked his location, he was there. What is this?" Rick asked Melvin. "Where is my dad?"

"This is the presentation room, and he was there, but he's here now. Maybe he wanted to say a final goodbye." Melvin watched Rick's expression. "Look at the front of the tank."

He sat down in a chair and closed his eyes, muttering to himself about his arm.

Rick and Henric walked up to the first tank and there he was. David McCathey, sleeping peacefully in yellow light. He wore his typically lab coat with ID attached, and his face looked a little bruised, like he had gotten into a fight recently. Rick looked at the other tanks and saw the two shorter empty ones.

"What is this? What's happening?"

"It's an extraction. We were supposed to take you, and _you_ to your dad safely. Put you in the tanks, clean this place out, and send you all to Lavaunzier's new location. They took the scientists info and told us what they wanted us to do. I never directly interacted with your father."

David walked up to Rick and Henric.

"I did. Right before he got in this tank, he told me to find you. Then Bickerstaff gave me other directions. Apparently David had been hiding you because you were sick, and he didn't want you experimented on. He thought he could put you in a coma to hide you while he created a clone your age and size, to trick them. But it didn't work. The only success was too young to take your spot and before he could try again, Taccaria's creatures escaped. The scientists hid here in these tanks until they could be shipped off to the new lab. Next to your father is Doctor Hiro Jeong, the one that started the research on clones, and Doctor Aida Pinto, the creator of the automatons."

"Where's Dr. Mutasa then? Or his daughter? Why aren't there tanks here for them?" Rick demanded.

"They're here, we just don't know where. Dr. Mutasa never checked out, and the security cams say he was with his daughter when they entered." David replied.

"So he was going to sacrifice me just to keep Rick safe?!" Henric asked David.

"Yeah." David replied quietly. "I'm sorry, kid."

"You don't matter." Rick said to him, turning around and raising his gun. "You never did."

Henric was shocked. "Hold on, You, you saved me from that robot, remember? The automaton!"

"I let you live because it was easier for you to escape him than it was for me. Automatons don't kill no matter who screws with their code. A few beatings, I play unconscious and it leaves me alone. I wanted you to realize who you are, and what you are not. You. Are. Not. ME!" Rick shouted. "I was going to kill you right in front of him, but change of plans," He aimed at the tank and pulled the trigger three times.

"NO!" Henric cried. The gun only shot twice, he was out of ammo. But it wasn't bulletproof. Rick got David McCathey once in the forehead and the other in his left eye, making a small spurt of blood on the glass. The lights inside switched to red, and the tank began to open.

"David, give me your gun." Rick commanded, holding out his hand. David shook his head. "No. He's not dangerous, he's nothing like the other clones there's no reason to kill him."

Rick looked over to Melvin, who also shook his head. "My job was to bring you here and wait for extraction. Both of you. I'm not going to help you kill him, clone or not. Especially after you just committed patricide."

Rick was furious. "Fine, I'll kill him with my bare hands then."

Henric ran towards the door and began pulling at both handles, struggling to get them to open. Ever so slightly, it budged more and more until water spurted out through the gaps. Rick was a footstep behind Henric when he noticed how far up the water was behind the door.

"Wait, don't open the-"

A full on wave burst through the doors, sweeping everyone off their feet. Rick slammed backwards into his father's tank while Henric and David were swept out into the square tunnel by the current. Melvin had been thrown from his seat but was holding on to another one for dear life.

"You just had to shoot the glass!" He screamed before losing grip and hurtling towards the wall. He smacked it with a loud thump and went silent. Rick managed to hold on to the tank long enough for the water to calm. Once he finally lost his grip he dropped into the puddle with a loud splash and coughed up the excess water. Looking behind him, he only saw Melvin.

_David and Henric must have been washed away into the tunnel. _He thought.

_No._

_David and my clone. It doesn't deserve my name. Every other clone has a number. I'm the only Henric McCathey. There's no one else like me._

Henric got to his feet and looked at the five tanks, at the scientists sleeping faces.

_Namatsai should be here. And her father. I'm going to find them both and make sure they're safe._

He turned around and winced. He hurt his back when he hit the tank, but he ignored the pain and walked towards the navy blue doors. He was determined to find them and finally escape this monstrous menagerie.


End file.
